Colony 11094
by The Final Lament
Summary: Alec has survived two years on the Xenomorph invaded colony, now he is the last human on the planet, living on a delicate knife edge of science and instinct. But that balance has been disrupted and now the last human must use every tool he has to survive...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Alien nor am I profiting from writing this.

Author's Note: The bad new: This should have been posted a year and a half ago but lost the file in a reformat

The good news: I've improved a lot since then so this should be better than the original.

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><p>A xenomorph hissed in the darkness. Alec ignored it, safe in his sanctum. For two years he'd been living in the boiler room of the power plant, the door nailed and welded shut. In that time not a single alien had made it into the room which was no longer dominated by the huge boiler, the bulky machine had been dismantled and shifted out through the vents early in Alec's residence there.<p>

It had been a long day, he'd had to locate a new supermarket to trawl through, and with the clock showing it as fourteen in the evening he was long overdue sleep. Still he needed to do a few things before he let sleep take him. Like turn on the morph repulsor's and write his diary. With a single flick of a switch the repulsor's were set up giving off a discordant infrasound from all sides as well as an oscillating high pitch to put off the morphs echolocation. Safe in a blanket of sound he couldn't even hear Alec began the day's journal.

_Day 600_

_Spent the morning looking for a new food supply, had to go over ten whole miles to reach it. Any further and I'll never get back by nightfall. One of the drones malfunctioned about halfway there, going to have to retrieve it tommorow. Right pain in the ass that's going to be, particularly when I'm down to a handful of power cells._

_If the new place doesn't have some I'll be dead within a month._

_On the bright side it proved one of my earlier theories, the damn malfunction allowed a drone to find me, pretty sure it's new gen as it ignored me once it smelled who I was._

_Other than retrieving the drone I shouldn't need to leave for another week._

Alec flipped closed the journal and put it with the others. He'd need a new one soon. Hell he needed a new everything soon.

With nothing left on the agenda the human settled down to sleep, his tranquility only punctured by the occasional hiss in the night.

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><p>The queen growled her displeasure. One of the drones had returned a few hours ago having been within biting distance of the human. Xenomorphs had never been a species that went in for science but the queen knew enough about life to know why the drone had failed to strike. The human's scent was all through the hive.<p>

The drones thought it was a member of the hive. She didn't blame them, most drones were just a body full of instincts which took orders from any xenomorph higher up on the food chain. It said a lot about humans that they produced the best drones.

Except for that one. Somehow whenever it got near one of the drones the drone went – for lack of a better word – blind. It made no sense.

Shaking her head – a motion she'd learnt from the humans which had once been the main prey of the hive – she settled down to sleep. Dreaming of killing the one that got away.

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><p>Yeythwei watched the ooman flee into it's hovel. Curiosity was not a normal feeling for a yautja about it's prey yet as the hunter watched the ooman pass mere meters from the kainde amedha without it so much as turning in it's direction. At the very least the ooman warranted further watching before he killed it.<p>

The predator completely failed to notice that even as it watched the human it too was being watched in turn. Silent as the night the praetorian observed and left to inform the queen.

Author's Note: Something of a teaser chapter I know and shorter than I'd like but I think the quality is ok.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Thankyou for the wonderful reception of the first chapter. And... well that's pretty much it really.

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><p><p>

Piusnex watched the human from the grill. He was soundly asleep, a perfect opportunity to finally kill the irksome human. Except she couldn't reach.

For the first time in two years the human's device had failed yet even now he was safe. From fifty foot above him all the praetorian could do was snarl and hiss as below her the surviving human slept on.

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Perched even higher on one of the large of the plant's buildings Yeythwei couldn't help amusement at the hard-meat's frustration. The praetorian was a fine specimen and the predator look forwards to claiming it's skull. But that didn't matter. A praetorian meant a full blown hive. And a hive meant a Queen.

Tomorrow he would track down the hive's location and, with luck, kill the queen before the hard-meat were even aware of his existence. The praetorian was safe for now.

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><p><p>

Stretching slowly Alec blinked as the sunlight coming through the grill blinded him for just a few moments. As his eyes adjusted he saw the creature standing atop the grill. It was a fine mesh grill so there was no way it could reach him. But that wasn't the problem.

'I'm dead.'

With a speed he'd never known he possessed he dived for the control panel and slammed the skylight controls. The metal plate slid closed sealing the xenomorph off from him. But it was too late.

'I'm dead.' The thought came again. He'd made a mistake, and now he was going to die.

The question was how long until that mistake caught up with him.

He walked over to one of the control boards, this one for power distribution and storage. It had been unusually cloudy yesterday, the solar collector's hadn't absorbed enough energy to keep the sonic disruption going all night.

He wondered how long the praetorian had watched him. A mere few minutes? A few hours? Nearly the whole night? It didn't matter, they knew exactly where he was and while the roof and grill were very acid resistant it wouldn't matter in the long run. They knew, and one day he would make another mistake and that would be it. He wondered what would happen. Would he be killed outright or dragged into the hive?

He'd seen it happen so many times in the last few years. It had been the oddballs and misfits who'd survived longest.

He remembered Mike, a real zen nutcase, he'd been able to slow his own heartbeat enough that the bugs didn't even notice him. Until one day he'd gone outside with a fever and lost control. Heart racing, they'd been on the poor guy in seconds. It had been such a small mistake.

Then there had been Emma. It had been between them that they'd created the repulsors. Then they'd begun identifying the different calls of the xenomorphs. She hadn't known the call she was testing was used to pass on the location of prey. A rather large mistake as mistakes went.

Then there had been Jaleel. He'd had it all sorted, food, fresh water, power, the drones and even a facemask and blades in case he was caught. It was pity he'd never checked the blueprints of one of the buildings or he'd have known that one of the main pipes for the sewer system ran right underneath it. It had probably taken them months to claw their way up through that much concrete, but they'd got him all the same.

Then there was Eric. And The Hacker – they'd never found out his real name. And Bill, 'Two Guns' Bill, David, Dai, Alex, Sidney, Rowan, Jimmy and Jimi, the list just went on back into infinity. One mistake; that was all it ever took.

Forcing himself out of the depressing trip down memory lane Alec got dressed, shrugged on his pack, set up the repulsor drones and left, he had a drone to retrieve and in light of recent events a few extra barricades to build.

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The Queen grinned, which is to say her lips peeled back to reveal a set of razor sharp teeth. It wouldn't mean much to an observer, this was the standard expression for a xenomorph. This time however it really was a grin. They'd finally tracked down the human's lair. It was just a matter of time before one of the praetorian's or one of the older drones got the chance to kill or capture it. The predator however was another matter. There were drones patrolling the hive constantly, runners hung above the hive entrances. The hive was a seething bowl of nerves, wariness and anxiety but if the hunter stayed true to it's species' modus operandi then it would be dead as soon as it attacked the hive.

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Author's Note: Once more shorter than I'd like but getting better.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I can honestly say this fic is the most fun I've had writing in ages.

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Piusnex waited upside down from the ceiling of the cave, around her ten drones also waited in total silence. Chances were the yautja would enter through this, the least used entrance to the hive. Of course this wasn't the only entrance being guarded, every one of the seven entrances had a praetorian and at least a couple of drones.

They'd been waiting for four hours. It was frustrating, especially with how she had found the human's lair just last night. She knew she shouldn't care but since she'd made the find she wanted to make the kill, or better yet the capture.

Still she was tired, even xenomorphs needed some sleep and she hadn't slept since yesterday morning and the sun was just starting to set. It was most curious, predators were so foolhardy that one should have attacked by now.

They were all tired beyond belief, almost asleep herself she was barely paying attention when one drone fell asleep and released it's grip on the ceiling. A bolt of plasma ripped it apart before it even hit the floor.

Just as they had set a trap the yautja had prepared a trap in turn. Ordering the now rather alert drones to stay put she crept deeper into the hive, half-expected a plasma charge to hit her between the shoulders.

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Alec watched the walls nervously, prepared to flee at even the slightest hiss, it wasn't the first time he'd ventured into the hive and it hopefully wouldn't be the last.

Keeping one eye on the ceiling he ventured through every tunnel he could, the remote for the repulsor drones clasped tightly in a sweaty palm. As much as possible he needed to conserve the batteries, which meant that his weekly walk through the hive was now even more terrifying than usual.

He remembered when he'd entered the hive today, a praetorian and a swarm of drones had watched him from the ceiling. He'd panicked and pressed the remote, which turned the repulsors off. For a few seconds all eyes were on him – metaphorically – and then they ignored him. His second big mistake that day and they'd just ignored him, just letting him waltz right in. He didn't know what was going on but to have the hive so preoccupied they ignored him was worrying in itself.

With the repulsors slowly circling him, still off, he couldn't help his other hand creeping to the small handgun on strapped to his hip, always the last resort, the gunshots were loud enough to be heard through the repulsors. As one of the last surviving marines had unfortunately forgotten. The screaming had lasted for minutes.

Creeping with his back to a wall he saw a praetorian go past at what passed for a sprint, he vaguely recognised it as Chrome, so nicknamed because of how reflective the praetorian's chitinous armour was.

Forcing himself to be calm he turned and began to walk, quickly, the other way; anything that could scare a praetorian would probably prove hazardous to his health.

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><p><p>

The cloak was almost useless against the kainde amedha, therefore rather than recklessly plunging into the hive Yeythwei took the time to scout the entrances before settling on the most remote. With any luck he'd get in, kill the queen and be out before the hard meat noticed his presence.

Yet something felt off about the whole thing, he hadn't seen a drone since the morning and the sun was beginning to set. Which was extremely significant when you considered the planet had a forty hour day, over thirty hours and not a single kainde amedha had ventured from the hive.

Just to be sure he settled down in the long grass and waited, gun aimed at the entrance. Sure enough before ten minutes had passed a single drone fell from the ceiling. He pulled the trigger. And left the area, heading for the main entrance. No doubt within minutes drone and praetorian alike would be swarming that entrance, leaving the front door wide open.

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Author's Note: And that's a wrap, I've decided one section per POV so once I use up all four (currently) POVs the chapter is over. It'll keep it short for now – it always takes me a while to start grinding out huge chapters - but hopefully it will also provide a good overview and keep it interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Due to how poor my last set of uploads was in terms of quantity – again sorry everyone, life just got in the way – I'm starting early in the hopes are getting out a total of seven whole chapters across all my active fics. Thankyou once again for the stunningly positive response.

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Terror had finally overcome Alec's willpower, he broke into a sprint, the repulsors struggling to keep up. Worse still he was unpursued. It should have seemed like a divine intervention but it wasn't, it was truly terrifying. To know that somewhere out there was something so dangerous that the hive would ignore him completely. Take Chrome for example, the praetorian had been actively hunting him for over a month and yet she'd been within striking distance, and just ran straight past him.

Then there had been the praetorian on the ceiling, Faceless, so named for the claw marks on the smooth part of it's head, and all the drones had also treated him like so much background noise, which was usually the literal case.

Something was going on and he was getting out while he still could.

Finally approaching the exit he almost didn't notice the three red dots that were rather devotedly following his ribcage. Almost.

Diving to the side the bolt of plasma missed him by inches, the impact with the resinous floor seriously knocked the breath out of him though. There was a click from above him. Alex turned upwards to see blades descending towards his throat.

They never arrived. Soundlessly a tail had descended from the ceiling, wrapped around the alien's throat and hoisted it into the air.

The gun had always been a worst case scenario thing, Alec was pretty sure this qualified. He went for the gun only to have it fall from his fingers.

Looking down he saw the blackened stumps which had once been the third and fourth fingers of his left hand. The plasma blast hadn't missed entirely.

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Yeythwei cursed as he flailed in the air. It appeared one of the khainde amedha had been smarter than he'd thought. Still; not too smart, the wise thing would have been to stab it's tail through his brain while he'd been distracted by the ooman. It had been an error to focus on the ooman, after all it hardly constituted a threat.

Angling the plasma caster upwards it was just the work of a moment to launch a seething ball of ionised plasma into the praetorian's chest. The two fell back to the floor, Yeythwei narrowly avoiding being crushed by the still twitching corpse although he did get showered in droplets of acidic blood, he roared in pain as the acid neutralised itself on dissolved flesh.

Grimacing beneath his mask the yautja returned it's attention to the ooman. Which was the point the second praetorian barrelled into him.

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The Queen waited patiently, the entrance to her chamber heavily guarded by the xenomorphs birthed from some of the planets most deadly predators. Something was wrong though, the predator should have been neutralised hours ago yet not a single one of her praetorians had returned. Hissing angrily she knew there was nothing she could do but wait, stuck to the ceiling like she'd been since birth.

Still with so many eggs on the verge of hatching she wouldn't give the predator a chance even if it did get this far into the hive.

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Piusnex arrived just in time to see Haudvesica pull the predator into the air. If it had been any other praetorian the creature would be dead already but he'd lost the spike on his tail trying to throw back a human's grenade in the early days of the hive. It was tragic in a way that such a heroic action would one day lead to his death.

As the predator regained it's feet, small sections of it's skin bubbling slightly, a last memento from the late Haudvesica, she barrelled into it scything off the plasma caster with a single swipe of her claws.

The predator retaliated slashing the blades deep into the chitin protecting her torso and kicking her away. It never got the chance to take advantage of the opening though as her tail had wrapped around it's ankle, pulling the hunter to the floor. Now poised above him she struck down with her tail only for it glance off the floor as he rolled aside.

Now back on his feet he drove his fists repeatedly into the praetorian's head, dazing her. She could only be thankful that the acid had ruined his blades or the blow would have been fatal. Nevertheless as the predator drove it's knee into her chest, the chitin, weakened by the cut at the start of the fight gave way, she knew she was losing this fight.

Still she gained some satisfaction from the roar of fury it gave as the acid ate into it's knee. Still dazed she barely saw the fist move as it impacted her chin, knocking her over backwards.

Piusnex had never been knocked unconscious before yet she knew something was wrong as her sense of smell and hearing began to fade. Her echolocation fading she barely noticed the predator draw it's combi-spear, about to drive it deep into her chest. She did know she had lost but it didn't matter, she'd injured it and destroyed it's wristblades and it's gun. Almost weaponless it would now be easy prey now for the rest of the hive

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Author's Note: Finally above the over a thousand words per chapter I usually aim for, hopefully a ultra long chapter will at some point pull it up to an excess of a thousand words per chapter as the average. Personally I think it's my best chapter, fight scenes have always been my speciality I guess though I've never had to write them from more than one point of view. What do you all think?

Also if anyone else has a deep seated loathing of the upcoming Spyro game then you may like my latest fic, Skylanders: Spyro's Adven- OH MY GOD WHAT IS IT? If you are annoyed by what they've done to a once magnificent game series then please boycott the new game.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Well the most recent chapter hasn't been up for even ten minutes and I'm already writing this. As always thanks for the overwhelmingly (and surprisingly) positive response already.

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Yeythwei stabbed down, the combispear parting the hard chitin as though it were mercury, the metal designed to cope with the creature's acidic blood. The praetorian didn't make a sound, unconscious as it was. Pulling the spear out he saw he'd missed the heart by a few mere inches. He stabbed down again.

The blow never connected as something impacted against the plates of his armour hard enough to knock him back as step, looking up he saw the ooman holding one it's species' primitive projectile weapons. Snarling he lifted the combispear, preparing to throw it straight through him. He didn't get the chance as the human emptied the rest of the clip into him, not all of it hit his armour. There was a click as the human tried to reload but dropped the clip twice before it managed to push it home.

He could probably kill the human but not before it shot him again and then he would likely be too injured to escape the khainde amedha when they followed his trail.

Spitting and snarling he ran into the night. The defeat grating on his pride. There would be a reckoning for this, he'd make sure of it.

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Alec awkwardly reholstered the gun. Still mildly winded he struggled to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. Faceless was dead, and unfortunately he'd landed on one of the repulsors which was probably completely dissolved by now. It wasn't a complete loss, he had managed to retrieve the broken remnants of the alien's energy weapon

Sighing he turned the other repulsors on and went to leave, only to stop at a soft hiss behind him. Turning with trepidation he was relieved to see a complete lack of avenging xenomorphs, instead his eyes fell upon the mortally wounded Chrome. The praetorian was losing a lot of blood and would be dead soon. Except... but no, down that route lay death, except he owed his life to it. Could he really leave the creature to die when he had the power to save it? Alec mulled upon this for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

Knowing he'd regret it he only just managed to lift the praetorian, careful to make sure the blood didn't touch him. It was going to be a long walk home and Chrome would be lucky to survive that long. But somehow, despite all logic saying he should leave it to die and that put in similar circumstance the xenomorph wouldn't hesitate to kill him, Alec knew he was doing the right thing. A life for a life.

He hoped he'd live to regret it.

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Deep within the hive the Queen raged. Two praetorians dead and the yautja was still alive. Still it was wounded, and it would pay. Her angered screams echoing through the cave system, she dispatched Haudmisericordia – the oldest and most efficient killer amongst the praetorians, older even than her in fact – to track the predator down. It would be lucky to see it's next sunrise.

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Piusnex woke. Everything hurt and she couldn't move. Snarling she tried to lash out with her tail only to find that bound as well. The human was here, she could smell him, his scent thick upon the air, this had to be it's lair. Locating it easily she found it was making quiet noises like so many of it's kind did. She wondered what it meant. The human walked over to one of it's machines. The electroreceptors in the front of her head were going crazy with the number of machines surrounding her. In fact every sense seemed almost in overload, one of the machines for example was making an irritating beep every few seconds. Then another xenomorph spoke in the darkness.

"Injure. Death. Praetorian. Alive. Human." It didn't make sense, and if another of her kind was so close why didn't it kill the human?

"Who are you? I can't locate you?" She snarled out into the darkness. There was a long pause while the human noisily typed away at one of it's machines.

"Weapon. Severely injured. Kept alive for implanting a young one." If xenomorphs had foreheads hers would have wrinkled in confusion.

"What is the human going to do?" Nothing at all except the human making noises to itself. Whoever it was they had abandoned her, she could only hope they would report back to the hive. She struggled weakly as the human got up from it's chair, it walked over to her and placed something on her wound before binding it in place. She screamed in agony as whatever it was made it feel like the wound had been set aflame. She could do nothing as the human continued it's torture.

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Author's Note: And that's a wrap, it's shorter than I'd like but then again nearly all chapters are.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: It is my misfortune ladies and gentlemen to have to say that after this update it will be a fortnight until I upload again, on the bright side I intend it to be my largest upload ever, with new fics I never got round to starting and chapters on nearly everything I haven't finished and rewrites of some of my shoddiest material. This is primarily due to the my rather extended holiday coming to an end, a last hurrah of sorts before I have to go back to the 'whenever I have the time and inclination' writing system.

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><p>Alec woke to Chrome's furious hissing. It had probably been a mistake to put the praetorian in the room next to his, other than being highly dangerous it was also proving rather hazardous to his ability to sleep.<p>

Groggily sitting up he stared bleary eyed at the clock until it came into focus. 3:00am. How could it only be three in the morning? There had to be something wrong with the batteries, the nice, new ten year lifespan batteries. Chrome's hissing intensified with a slight pained edge to it. The anaesthetics must have worn off.

Taking a moment to douse his face with cold water to wake himself up properly, Alec grabbed his gun. And dropped it. Still trying to use his left hand for everything, the habit of a lifetime made obsolete by a single shot. Picking it up again, this time with his right hand, he then headed for the door, opening it slowly and peering through the crack, gun ready. Chrome was still bound firmly in place.

Satisfied he wasn't likely to be killed instantly, he walked in and examined his patient. The alcohol soaked compress had been completely eaten away by the acidic blood and he daren't apply another for fear of giving the praetorian alcohol poisoning. Fortunately the bleeding seemed to have stopped, well fortunately unless it was due to blood loss but Alec decided not to dwell on that.

Sensing his presence Chrome began to thrash wildly, desperate to escape her bindings and kill him. 'There's gratitude for you.' Alec thought wryly. It was mildly annoying if he were honest considering he'd saved the xenomorph's life, but unsurprising, he hadn't exactly expected trust and kindness from the creature.

As the xenomorph hissed away in it's near incomprehensible language Alec sighed, all attempts at communicating had thus far failed; he simply didn't know enough about their language.

He soaked another compress in water and dressed the wound, Chrome hissed as he applied it, the dressing was already audibly sizzling.

So far the chest wound showed signs of rapid healing, a common characteristic of xenomorph biology but the jaw was still broken – as well as dislocated – from the predator's brutal uppercut. The stab wound near the heart had proven difficult with Alec having to opt to simply keep it clean and he daren't risk antibiotics as they would likely prove fatal to Chrome.

Pulling up a chair he sat next to the praetorian, who tried to kill reach him again, grabbed a dataslate, and began to write out his journal.

_Day 601_

_Shit really hit the fan today, was doing the usual weekly recon of the hive, making sure the new drones get used to my presence when I screwed up and panicked. Ended up turning the repulsors off. Ironically the xenos ignored me, upon fleeing the hive I was attacked by an alien – species unknown – using some form of plasma based weaponry, nor missing a couple of fingers; got off lucky._

_Then taking complete leave of my senses I saved a praetorian – Chrome, see previous journal entries – who had been wounded in the fight, it's now in the room next to mine. I must have lost my fucking marbles this time!_

_Faceless was also killed in aforementioned fight as well as a repulsor destroyed: No parts to replace it either._

_High chance this will be last journal entry._

Putting the dataslate aside Alec absentmindedly patted Chrome's smooth head before going back to bed.

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><p>Yeythwei swore angrily as the praetorian's tail pierced his stomach. Against all logic he used the tail to pull the alien closer, narrowly avoiding being disembowelled by it's claws.<p>

Now too close for the praetorian to block he took a firm grip on his combispear and drove it up into the creature's brain, watching in mild fascination as the tip came out of the creature's skull then howling as blood poured onto his arm. Cursing his absentmindedness he pushed the creature away and quickly mopped up the blood with the leaves of some of the local vegetation before wincing as the plant stung his hand.

He was starting to think this planet would be the death of him. Still he had a lot to celebrate for the moment, ten drones he'd killed before the praetorian had even revealed itself – hoping to take advantage of his injuries and fatigue. Grinning beneath his mask he hacked off the praetorian's head, with so many trophies available it was going to be a long night.

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><p>The Queen waited patiently for the senior praetorian to return with news of the yautja's death. Already she'd ordered the drones to return to their normal duties about the hive.<p>

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><p>Piusnex thrashed against her bonds, desperate to kill the human responsible for her captivity and torture. Giving up for the moment she could only wait as the human approached carrying one of the pain cloths in it's hand.<p>

This time it only hurt slightly as the cloth was placed on the wound, she could already feel it beginning to dissolve.

As the human sat down next to her she thrashed again in the hopes of getting an arm free. Unable to do anything she could only listen as the human tapped away at something he was holding.

Finally the human put aside whatever it was doing and, patting her head as he did so, left. Leaving a slightly confused praetorian to her thoughts.

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><p>Author's Note: Against all my expectations this fic has already accelerated to my second most popular. Not that I'm complaining or anything just surprised and realising how neglected everything else I write is.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: And now for the Alien chapter of the upload extravaganza,

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With a sigh Alec turned his rather archaic CD player off. Since wireless signals were essentially dead all across the planet he'd been unable to access any of his own music files from the data core. Fortunately one of the colonists had turned out to be something of a musical historian and while the old CDs hadn't been to his tastes at first, the centuries old records had grown on him.

Unfortunately he had been unable to play any today, which was annoying as he traditionally had made this day of the week his day off. The problem was Chrome, xenomorphs were very reliant on sound for spacial awareness so when he'd selected The Who's 'Won't get fooled again' the praetorian had thrashed and screeched like crazy. He hadn't realised the cause at that point which had led to Chrome nearly having a coronary at Green Day's rather louder and faster paced 'Basket Case'.

Which meant music was out, which meant relaxing was out. His day of relaxation killed before it even started Alec put the albums back on the shelf and took a step towards the computer when a case caught his eye.

Surely it was madness, but on the other hand some of the music was rather quiet and it was renowned for being melodic and rythmic so could prove enjoyable to listen to for even a xenomorph. Carefully he pulled it off the shelf, blowing off an inch thick layer of dust before making the mistake of breathing in.

After he'd recovered from his coughing fit Alec flipped open the case and put the CD in before turning the volume low, it would ruin a number of the pieces but hopefully would prove less of a disturbance to his patient.

Settling into a chair and leaning back casually Alec just soaked in the sounds as 'Beethoven: The Complete Collection' began to play throughout the compound. A beautiful day of doing absolutely nothing lay ahead.

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Yeythwei cursed violently as he injected the antibiotics. It was his seventh injection within the hour having so far having had to inject a few ccs of platelet enriched blood around the wound to quickly stop the bleeding, three other types of antibiotics, one blood transfusion and a pain suppressant, the latter of which did not seem to be particularly effective.

With a herculean effort he got to his feet and managed to make it the few metres to his sleeping quarters.

It would take time for his injuries to heal, months probably, but there was no way the khainde amedha could get into his ship.

And then once his wounds were gone he would track down the human, gut it, and proceed to make it eat it's own liver. Another regret was that he had failed to collect the skulls of the other two praetorians he'd killed although the sheer size of the skull he had collected was a more than adequate compensation.

Mind afire with thoughts of glory and vengence Yeythwei settled down to sleep.

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The Queen was at a loss to express herself, it was unusual for a xenomorph to feel sadness, loss or grief. This knowledge didn't help her though as she mourned the dead, two of her children robbed of their lives by the callous yautja race, an excess of twenty drones and to cap it all, in her lust for retribution, she had managed to get her most senior praetorian killed. That was what hurt the most, her sheer pride and arrogance had got her advisor and the closest thing a Queen could have to a friend, killed.

With no other way to express herself the Queen let out a shrill keening wail, trying to vent all her pain, her grief and her anger in a single primal cry.

But she couldn't mourn for long, down that road lay destruction for the hive, for the sake of the hive she would have to remain strong and aloof. Haudmisericordia may have been dead but the hive which he'd dedicated his life to, and eventually laid down said life for, would live on.

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Piusnex howled and screamed as the loud disharmonious – to her at least – sound robbed her of all sense of direction.

The human rushed in babbling it's strange language. How could it live with that noise? And where was it standing? She couldn't locate anything, starting to panic she began to thrash in her bonds, reopening partially healed wounds. She felt a needle pierce her arm then the world simply began to fade away.

When she woke the noise was worse again, it was just so loud and fast, smothering all other sounds around it. She could barely express her gratitude when the human turned the disgusting device off. At least for the three seconds it took for the praetorian to remember who had turned the noise machine on in the first place.

To get over her disorientation she let out a few low pitch clicks, which bounced back, refamiliarising herself with the layout of the room.

Unfortunately it was just five minutes later that the infernal machine started up again except this time much quieter, the sound softer and rythmic and although it did interfere with here sense of surroundings somewhat Piusnex had to admit the sound was enjoyable to listen to. Perhaps the machine wasn't some sort of torture device after all, it was just possible that the human listened to this for enjoyment – though how it could enjoy the earlier noise she couldn't fathom.

The sound certainly took her mind off things, like her captivity and her inability to move for example. After a few hours of the sound she truly had developed an appreciation for it, sometimes it was loud and dramatic, at times soft and smooth but always ever changing and ever melodic. Feeling she had gained something of an insight into the human psyche Piusnex allowed the sound to slowly lull her into sleep.

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Author's Note: I felt something of a gentler chapter was needed in this case as well as something both human and xenomorph might be able to relate to. Hope it wasn't too unbelievable.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoy the chapter.

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Alec watched the monitors in terror, the CCTV feeds blank for the moment. He'd been having such a lovely day until he'd realised his defences were down, and were staying down. Since then relaxation had been replaced by fear.

He'd just kicked his desk chair over to the computer responsible for sonic defences when he'd realised he couldn't. With the ultrasonic and infrasonic waves reaching for miles around it would be torture for Chrome.

For a few, brief seconds he considered doing it anyway, after all it was his survival that would be at stake. But then, unwillingly, he imagined what it would be like if he were in Chrome's place, blind and the only sound horrifically painful to the ear.. He wasn't a monster, there was no way he could do that to another intelligent creature – and the past two years had more than proven the intelligence of the praetorian cast in the hive.

Which had led to his current predicament, watching the CCTV and hoping against hope not to see the familiar shape of a xenomorph drone. But after a few hours it soon became apparent his fear was for nought. The hive was quiet tonight, licking it's wounds probably.

An upset cry brought his attention back to inside the building, Chrome was complaining about something. Again.

With only a minor grumble he left the computer room to see what the praetorian wanted.

As he entered Chrome's room he was relieved to see the praetorian still bound to the table, as ironic as it would have been he would rather not get a tail through his chest for his troubles.

The praetorian's cry was high pitched, it's meaning unfamiliar to him. Carefully he redressed Chrome's wounds, the xenomorph's healing, although astonishingly efficient, was being taxed to it's limits at the moment, but hopefully, with a little help, the praetorian would survive.

As soon as he touched the dressing Chrome had shut up, waiting patiently. A drastic change from the last time he'd changed the bandages. Still, as soon as it became clear he was finished, the praetorian screeched again.

In response Alec's stomach growled loudly. The penny dropped.

"Just give me a minute Chrome. I'll get us both something to eat." He soothed calmingly. It had been the best part of a day since he'd eaten and he had no idea how long since Chrome had eaten.

Rifling through the cupboards he got out a can of meatballs for himself and struggled to find something the xenomorph would eat.

Eventually, after another hungry cry caught his attention, he settled on one of the cans of SCP, the rations had been left preserved in their tin since the colonisation. Still, considering xenomorphs were carnivores the single celled protein would at least prove digestible if not quite galactic-class cuisine.

Returning with the food he noticed that Chrome fell silent as soon as he entered the room, which Alec assumed was because of the smell of the food. Still feeding the praetorian had proven... problematic at best. As the xenomorph was firmly bound to the table there was no way it could feed itself. Either he could knock it out, leaving the food, and hopefully tranq it back into unconsciousness afterwards or he would have to feed the praetorian by hand, something which didn't hold much appeal either.

He was almost beginning to regret saving the praetorian, whilst it provided fascinating company, every little thing seemed to add new complications to his life.

Eventually he decided he'd have to feed it himself. He could only hope he'd come out of this with all his fingers.

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Piusnex stifled in her restraints, as much as she enjoyed a rest every now and again, over a day's worth of doing nothing was proving more than she could handle in terms of boredom.

It had been several hours since she'd last heard the human and she was finding it unbearably lonely. While the human never understood a word she said, he had at least been something to complain at. And speaking of complaints, she was starving. It had been two days since her last meal and while xenomorphs didn't need to eat as often as humans, the hunger was really starting to get to her.

"I'm hungry!" She shouted, hoping to catch the human's attention, sure enough it slowly edged through the door and although she couldn't see him, she could almost feel his eyes watching her, his fear so thick in the air she could smell it. Just like every time he entered the room. The smell faded rapidly though. It was in her opinion most peculiar, in her experience a human always stunk of fear around her species so why the fear dissipated she simply couldn't understand.

"Food. Now!" She shouted again. The human walked over and touched the covering it had placed over her body. This was the bit that confused her, the cloth thing had stopped hurting and was actually quite soft now. She quivered almost undetectably as the human's cold fingers brushed the skin.

She stayed quiet as the human applied a new wrapping. As the human stepped away, and with no chance of it accidentally putting a finger in her chest wound – something likely to cause severe pain for the pair of them - she voiced her hunger again, the language barrier getting increasingly frustrating.

Talking to itself the human left the room, leaving Piusnex, once more, to her thoughts. Her increasingly confused thoughts.

After about five minutes her hunger got the better of her again and she let out another plea for sustenance, it wasn't long before the human returned. And it had brought food.

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Yeythwei forced down the dehydrated gunk which made up the majority of his rations. It was one probably the main reason that most hunters chose to feast upon the local wildlife upon making planetfall rather than subsist on their own stores.

Then, that action alone enough to tire his wounded body, he settled back down to sleep. It was going to be a long month.

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The Queen ripped into one of the local animals which the drones had brought back to the hive. In the day since the tragic loss, five creatures had been selected as hosts, the smartest, fastest and strongest of their kind which would thereby produce the best xenomorphs. Three of the elder drones had gone through the metamorphic process through which most praetorians were created, now given new strength and intelligence. Eventually, as their personalities formed, they would take names. The hive was reasonably small compared to what it could have been but that had been her choice.

If a hostile species were still on the planet then most Queens; herself included, would have chosen to raise the hive's number to gigantic proportions to fend off the threat, risking the balance of the ecosystems in the process. But with the humans dead and with just a few hives spread across the planet such numbers were unnessecary.

The physical wounds upon the hive were almost healed, the psychological ones would take a little longer.

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Author's Note: Managed to finish just in time for the Thursday update. Next update will be within the next three weeks so get those author alerts in now, or a review. Please?


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: It's hard to believe how popular this fic has become in just a couple of short months. Anyway, nostalgia over, here's the next chapter.

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><p>Alec delicately lowered a chunk of SCP into Chrome's jaws, firmly believing he was about to lose fingers. He soon found his fears were unfounded as the praetorian, instead, allowed him to let go and withdraw said digits before closing her jaws.<p>

He gave an audible sigh of relief. The next ten minutes followed the same pattern with Alec slowly growing to accept that the praetorian was, at the very least, not willing to harm him at expense to it's own well being.

Despite himself he was growing quite attached to the praetorian, despite the fact they couldn't even have a conversation, it was probably the fact he hadn't seen another human in almost a year now. Absentmindedly he patted the smooth surface of the xenomorph's skull. Hand pulling back as the touch elicited a growl.

Sighing deeply he moved over to the computer, archiving the recordings for today. It was a bit early to do so but he wanted to extract the sound data so he could add the food related words to the crude xenomorph-human dictionary he had slowly been constructing.

Chrome was quiet behind him, at least for a while before a gentle growling came up from behind him. Startled Alec spun in his chair. He needn't have worried, the praetorian wasn't moving beyond the rise and fall of it's torso as it breathed. Still the growling persisted.

It took Alec almost two minutes to figure out what the reasons for the sound was. Chrome was snoring.

Not having slept in over a day, Alec decided it would be a good idea to follow her example. He carefully locked the door and moved back to the boiler room where his sleeping bag was. Tossing off shoes and other bits of clothing which might damage it, Alec climbed into his sleeping bag and was asleep in minutes.

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><p>Piusnex was slowly getting groggier and groggier, despite doing nothing for over a day, she could feel the tiredness washing over her like a wave against a rock. And eventually the waves always won.<p>

She was aware of the human over by it's machine, that strange rhythmic clicking from where his fingers were touching a device. The sound almost hypnotising her.

She'd been reasonably pleased with the meal, the fibrous meat(?) the human had given her had been of reasonable quality and flavour despite the indignity of having to be fed. For a brief moment she'd considered taking off the human's fingers, it would have taken a split second to close her jaws around the digits. Self-interest won out over instinct and petty revenge. Maiming the human would achieve nothing except perhaps get her killed.

Now there was a point, why hadn't the human killed her? To be honest she didn't have a clue. When she'd first woken she'd expected some form of dissection, it had happened before, admittedly not to her, but she'd seen the bodies.

It wasn't just the human's odd behaviour she was wondering about, her own judgement was also quite questionable at the moment, like when the human had stroked the top of her head. She'd _purred_. The memory alone was enough to make her blush, if she were physically able to blush. It was all just so confusing. The human had saved her life. The human was keeping her here against her will. The human was making no attempts to harm her in any way. The whole situation was ridiculous.

No longer about to hold a coherent thought, Piusnex drifted off to sleep.

Unlike the inhabitants of the power plant – willing or otherwise – Yeythwei was struggling to sleep, the yautja was trying to figure out how it had almost been killed by a lone ooman and couple of praetorians. The ooman should never have qualified as a threat, the praetorians should never have caught him off guard. So what had made them so dangerous?

It wasn't the accuracy of the ooman and it's weapon, he'd killed Soft Meat that were far more skilled. It wasn't the ferocity, strength and speed of the praetorians, after all, he'd killed three of them already. The only logical explanation was pure bad luck, except...

Sighing, the yautja rolled over in it's bunk, there was an answer somewhere, just on the very edge of his thoughts, but try as he might he just couldn't seem to reach it.

Tossing and turning still, his wounds making every movement a trial, Yeythwei tried to sleep.

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><p>The Queen hissed softly in the darkness of the hive. The hunt had gone well, the hive would stay fed for just another week longer.<p>

But as all with all things over the last few days the good news was tempered with a hint of bad. The hunt had come across drones from another hive, starved and tired, they'd been easy prey for her own hive but still, the fact that another hive was desperate enough for food to foray into her territory spoke volumes for what was going on outside the hive's territories.

They'd been careful not to let the hive grow too large, to not kill to the point of excess, and their food supply had held out. But if more hives began to hunt here then that carefully maintained supply might die out. Steps would need to be taken to prevent further incursions.

Another small article of news also came to her attention, the device protecting the human's lair, as so industriously discovered by the late Piusnex, had not been on tonight. Perhaps it had broken.

Whatever the reason it meant the human was vulnerable, once the hive's territories were secure from outsiders it would be time to move in for the kill. No, the Queen carefully considered, not kill, capture, a smart host meant a smart xenomorph and you could never have enough smart xenomorphs...

Author's Note: And the thick plottens... Please read and review.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: Thought I'd throw in a bit of a twist with this one...

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Alec watched the camera feed, replaying a clip from about a minute ago. There was a flash of movement in the corner of the screen, the image already as magnified as possible with the limited equipment, it was brief but it was definitely there.

He was almost tempted to smile, if it wouldn't have tempted fate. Alec slowly rose from his chair, the movement had been in the direction of what had once been a supermarket, most likely he'd find them there, if he hurried.

Still Alec wasn't one to forget his responsibilities either. He quickly used the translator to inform Piusnex of his departure before knocking her out and untying her, leaving the praetorian with enough food to last her a week, then he was gone, out the door and fully armed for once.

He made it to the supermarket easily, repulsors circling him but not active, he raised his rifle, it was an old hunting rifle, probably it had once belonged to some rich gentlemen or other, it didn't matter, the xenomorphs had got them whoever they were. Carefully lining the sight up to eye level he strafed the shelves, stepping quickly as the rifle sweeped this way and that, sight never leaving eye-level, it was an amateur mistake but when it came to guns Alec was an amateur.

There was a crash as something was knocked off a shelf, Alec hoped it was his quarry rather than a warrior or praetorian, though comparatively powerful amongst Alec's small armoury the rifle simply lacked the stopping power to deal with the larger xenomorph castes, he privately wished he'd brought the alien's plasma weapon with him but it was still being prepared.

Another crash, close this time. Alec rolled out into the middle of the aisle, dropping to one knee as he aimed up the aisle. It was a move he'd seen in a number of the older films, from before the colonisation, surprisingly he pulled it off. There was a loud bang as the gun discharged, the drone dropped mid-jump, the bullet had caught it in the head, an instant kill shot. Which, while effective, said volumes about Alec's marksmanship, he'd been aiming for the xenomorph's chest.

He turned his attention to the human he'd just saved. They were wearing combat fatigues and carrying what Alec recognised as an old AK47, after centuries of service it was still viewed as the most reliable gun since time began.

"Follow me, quickly." The other guy obeyed, there would be time for talk later, now all that mattered was running.

Alec turned the repulsors on, now he'd got a decent look at the xenomorph he realised he'd been wrong, it wasn't a drone, it was a runner, and this deep in hive territory there was never just one runner.

By the time they got back to the power plant the sun had begun to set, slowly slipping past the horizon, bathing the sky in crimson light. They'd been cut off repeatedly, forced to make a number of circuits as Alec led the pair of them home.

Alec carefully removed the grille he usually used to enter, the small space was barely enough for a human, let alone a xenomorph, he threw his backpack in before climbing in after it, his still unnamed companion did likewise, replacing the grille without even needing to be asked. Alex pushed his backpack ahead of him, his rifle, still on his back, kept banging against the top of the vent but there was no longer enough room to remove it.

At the first turning he pushed the backpack into it, the small thing had just enough food and water for two days, just in case the aliens did ever get in and he had to leg it.

Finally Alec emerged from the vent after about two minutes crawling, he helped the other human up before removing his equipment, dumping it on a bench, he'd have time to sort it all later. "Put your stuff down whereever." Alec said before leaving the room, heading to what passed for his living room, noting the layer of dust on a lot of the objects which had once been the only things keeping him sane. It had been a month since that fateful day, and for good or ill Alec wouldn't change his decision for anything.

Settling into an armchair he waited. When the young man walked in, a pistol still strapped to his hip, Alec gestured to an armchair opposite, it had been Emma's, way back when they'd only just begun to dream about having a security system as effective as the repulsors.

"Welcome to my humble abode, it's not much but it's home." Alec said calmly.

"Seems like a lot where I'm sitting."

"Perhaps." Alex conceded. "Although, if you don't mind my asking, where have you been sitting?"

"Out in the countryside, there was a military complex on the edge of the city, we're holed up there." The soldier explained.

"We? You mean you're not the only one?" Alec asked, barely able to comprehend the concept, for so long it had been a given that he was the last survivor.

"Yeah, there's five of us. Capt. Williams, Sgt. Renalds, two civvies, like yourself, and me of course."

"And you would be?"

"Private Hunter."

"So what brings you to the big city, so to speak?"

"A supply run, we're running low on a few things." Pvt. Hunter explained.

"And they sent you on a supply run on your own?" Alec demanded incredulously.

"Yeah, you're on your own, what's the difference?" Hunter asked irritably.

"I don't have a choice, and I've got the repulsors."

"Repulsors?"

"I'll explain in the morning. For now, there's a spare bed somewhere in the east wing, the entire place is sealed off other than a couple of controlled exits so you're safe from the xenomorphs, and don't go into my lab until I've had a chance to explain things."

"Lab?" Hunter said suspiciously, the pistol came out in a smooth draw, the barrel centred on Alec's forehead. "You from Yutani?"

Alec just laughed. "Nothing so sinister, I've got someone living in there at the moment, they aren't good with people and I just want to explain your presence before I introduce you. Like I said. In the morning, ok?"

"Fine." Hunter grumbled, clearly unhappy.

"Good." Alec got up from his chair and went to his room, grabbing his sleeping bag before settling outside the door to the lab, despite Hunter's annoyed acquiescence he wasn't taking any chances.

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Piusnex was content for the moment. Her human was busy at one of it's machines but was due to 'talk' to her soon. It wasn't the most efficient method of communication but over the last month the two of them had established something of a rapport.

The praetorian still hadn't figured out why the human had saved her life but she had over the last month come to that conclusion, still her wounds were almost healed now and she wondered what her human would do when they did. Her human. That thought had taken some time to get used to. A lot of time.

Her human was excited about something, she could smell the adrenaline in the air.

"Leaving. Day. Sleep. Room. No leave. Please. Leave eat in room." Said the machine. It had taken her some time to figure it was one of her human's machines, it was a slightly difficult method of communication but it worked, if somewhat limited.

She didn't struggle as her human pushed the needle through her chitinous armour, it had become something of a routine, when her human left he used one of the humans strange liquids to knock her out. And when she woke she was free, unrestrained. Admittedly the door was locked but at least she had some freedom. She could probably break the door down before her human got back, but she wouldn't.

Instead she settled down in the human's chair. It creaked slightly under her weight, it was surprising but the chair was the comfiest object she'd even come in contact with, something that wasn't stone or metal, it was bizarre that only as the human's captive had she come to known luxury of any kind.

She used her feet to kick the chair towards the music machine – like most praetorians Piusnex was bipedal when an opportunity presented itself. Carefully she manipulated the buttons with her claws, scratching the slightly, the music washed over her, wonderfully calming, the human left one of the nice devices in the machine. She couldn't handle them herself, her claws went straight through them. Her human had been most upset.

The spines on her back tore the chair apart but she knew the human would replace it, his own chair had been removed before he left she noticed. Again it was ironic that it was only here, after two years of life, that the praetorian learnt how to relax. There was no prey to hunt and no hive to defend, the calmness of it all gave her time to sort out her chaotic thoughts which were evermore about a certain human.

Piusnex woke, there was a strange smell on the air, , something other than her human was inside the building. Another human and even through the locked door she could smell it's barely suppressed aggression along with her own human's excitement, or perhaps fear, there was no way to tell with adrenaline. While she preferred relying on her sense of hearing her nose was still keen enough to pick up trace elements about the new human. He stank of the humans' exploding powder, that noxious thing humans used to wash and of hive blood. Her human never smelt like that, he smelled of metals and chemicals and sweat, far more peaceful than the newcomer. There were sounds coming through the door, the human language just loud enough to make out but she couldn't understand many of their words. Military? That was the one of the words for the killer humans with their projectile weapons. Supply? Her human used it a lot, usually just before food, perhaps the new human was after food? Or trying to take her human's food. The human had given her some food when he'd left, red meat, still raw, far better than the eatable mould he usually gave. She couldn't understand her human's response though but it didn't seem angry.

Couldn't he tell the new human was dangerous? The humans left the room they were in, she could here their footsteps, the new human's fading in the distance while hers passed by the door before returning and stopping outside. She soon recognised the sound her human made when asleep. He was always clumsy when he woke, she settled down to sleep in the chair, her human would wake her when he woke. By accident, but still he was reliable in that way, like a well-trained drone.

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Yeythwei watched the oomans carefully, hidden by both the night and the cloaking device. There were four of them inside the building. If he still had his plasma caster it would have been easy to kill them but his smartdisc was too large to get through the window and even humans could see him under the glare of their lights.

He couldn't kill them, not yet anyway, but he was content to wait until an opportunity presented itself. It wasn't really trophies he was after, their weapons intrigued him. They would make a good replacement for his plasma caster.

A Hard Meat drone hissed in the night, he whirled around but there was nothing, he was just jumping at shadows. The khainde amedha had been fighting a lot lately, hive conflicts were always bloody, or so he'd been told. All the better to wait, a hive conflict meant weakness, once one hive had won, that would be the time to strike. When the survivor was at it's weakest, over-extended and desperate for food. Taking one last look at the ooman dwelling he left for his ship.

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The Queen hissed angrily, one of her patrols had disappeared that morning. The enemy was getting bolder, or more desperate, a mere weak ago it would never have dared venture into her territory in daylight. The time for drones was over, now was the time to produce warriors and runners – one of the few xenomorphs with the sense of sight. The warriors would provide the bulk of her army while the runners made most effective scouts, soon the time would come for the hive to go to war.

Another bit of news caught her attention, the human had been seen earlier in the day, normally it's escape would have infuriated her but the looming danger of the other hive was far more important, what was interesting though was that it had been spotted with another human. Still it was unimportant for the moment, only the hive mattered now.

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Author's Note: Sorry about the time jump but I was running out of ideas, as always please review, and should Pvt. Hunter get his own point of view, particularly considering he'll be meeting our favourite praetorian next chapter?


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: I never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response to the last chapter. As requested Hunter will have his own POV

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There was just the slightest scrape as the boot scraped across the floor, the friction just enough to make a squeak. Alec woke and lashed out, his arms had been outside his sleeping bag and it was on pure reflex he grabbed Pvt. Hunter's ankle, pulling and bringing the young man to the floor.

Alec, still half-asleep, lashed out again, catching him in the chin, he ceased his attack though when Hunter put his handgun under his chin. Calm as a limpid pond Alec spoke, "I thought I asked you to wait. Considering your patience seems a tad thin I guess we'll do this now rather than in daylight." This failed to get the desired response. "Remove your gun from beneath my chin." Still nothing. "How blunt do I need to say this? If you go into that lab with a peashooter with all the stopping power of a spitball then you will die."

"Why? What'cha got in there?" The soldier sneered. "Got yourself a xeno have you? You're own pet killer? I knew you were Yutani as soon as you warned me off."

"I'll show you, but first let me grab a tranq gun, unless being gutted is your idea of a fun day?" Alec snapped, patience wearing thin.

Hunter grudgingly allowed it.

Once they were outside the lab door once more, Alec signalled for the private to stop.

"Ok, a few ground rules when you go in. And before you protest," Hunter shut his mouth, not even managing to get a word out. "As I was saying," Alec continued. "Avoid loud noises and fast movements, try not to show fear, in fact better you try not to feel it, she's sensitive with emotions this close and if you're afraid she'll think you're prey. Are we good so far?"

"Why not just tranq the bloody bug?"

"Because we'll be dead before she even gets drowsy, next stupid question?"

"Then why did you demand to fetch a tranq gun?" Hunter asked dully.

"It makes me feel safer." Alec stated bluntly. "Now are you ready?"

"Yeah." Hunter said, not seeming to realise he'd rather lost control of the situation.

"In that case," Alec said while slowly opening the door, gauging where the xenomorph was likely to be. "I'd like you to meet Chrome."

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Piusnex woke when the human approached the door. She heard her human do the same, the two humans were talking quietly. She sniffed the air, trying to get a sense of what was going on. One of the humans stunk of anger and aggression, the other was calm but this close to her room she could catch the faint whiff of fear. She could guess which human was which.

The humans walked away from the door only to return a few minutes later, she could smell the knockout liquid, just the tiniest drop on the end of the dart, but enough for her to pick up on.

Normally her human would open the door slightly, sight the weapon, shoot then close the door, not giving her a chance to kill him. Which was good, she wasn't sure if she could still kill her human and didn't like the idea of finding out, both of the possible results were... unpalatable.

She heard the door open, sending out a series of high-pitched notes, hearing her surroundings. Her human was approaching her slowly with it's palms open talking to her quietly, she didn't understand most of his words but he didn't matter, her human wasn't going to kill her, he'd proven that already.

The new human however was edgy, he stank of terror and he was pointing one of the small human weapons at her, they weren't powerful enough to kill a praetorian, usually, but they stung.

She stood to her full height, drawing her tail back to impale the human, a stab up through the gut would allow her to bypass the ribcage and pierce the heart, the strike had proven most effective in the past.

The human noticed Piusnex's movement. It's trigger finger began to pull back as her tail darted forwards, then the unthinkable happened.

Her human stepped in the way, pushing the human's gun arm down, there was a loud retort as the bullet hit the floor, Piusnex stopped her attack, the tip of her tail just millimetres from her human's gut.

'Does he want me to kill him?' She pondered, meanwhile her human was shouting at the newcomer. She understood enough to know he was telling them not to shoot. Perhaps it was her he was protecting? The thought was absurd, she was a praetorian, a killing machine, he was just a human, if anything she should be protecting him. It didn't occur to her that under normal circumstances he'd need protecting _from_ her.

He was still prey though, peeling her lips back into a snarl, she wrapped her tail around his throat. To her human's credit he didn't try and pry her off, he knew she was the stronger.

"Prleasse don't killl."

Piusnex stopped, as did the other human.

Had her human really just?

"Noh kill." It was extremely distorted but her human was definitely talking to her.

"Why shouldn't I kill you?" She hissed, before realising the human wouldn't understand without his speaking machine. Somehow, despite his peril, her human was staying calm and was talking to the other one who was waving the weapon quite frantically now. She wondered why he was so calm. Then again she wondered why she hadn't simply killed the pair of them and escaped.

Her human turned towards the other, the gun went off twice and Piusnex's world went black.

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Yeythwei waited inside his ship, one of the warriors had been getting a bit edgy around the cloaked vessel and he could only assume the cloak's electrosignature, while masked, was being picked up faintly by the creature. It was annoying that most khainde amedha had electroreceptors, it seemed to be one of the traits that truly belonged to them rather than one they'd borrowed from a host.

Still, despite the variance in hosts, Hard Meat had what appeared to be set castes in the hive.

Most species became drones, with varying degrees of hearing and smell but seldom sight, and the aforementioned electroreptors. Drones were the core of every hive, the lifeblood so to speak, foragers, hunters and defenders. If Yeythwei were forced to pick an advantage they had over the other castes it would be their versatility. It was also not unknown for a drone, separated from it's hive, to start developing an individuality or personality of sorts.

Rather more rare were the warriors, this appeared more to do with the general aggression of the host species although it was noticeable that the hives only seemed to have them during times of war, such as now. Typically blind but strong with thick armour, savage claws and spined tail but ultimately aimless without the guidance of a praetorian, still they appeared to follow orders quite well. A warrior separated from it's hive would revert to instincts and go on a killing spree.

Runners were... anomalous. Typically quadrupedal and typically from quadrupedal hosts, they were the caste most inclined to have the sense of sight, his species had never figured out why. Still this unexpected sense made them very dangerous to experienced yautja as they were far more used to hunting their sightless counterparts. They were also, as the name suggested, very fast. They were similar to drones when kept away from a hive.

Praetorians were the first caste to have full individuality and some independence from the hive, although they did answer to the queen. A praetorian was either chosen from egghood, the egg, and facehugger were easily distinguished by their greater size, or metamorphosed from one of the previous castes when another praetorian died. Typically they were the most dangerous, being stronger, larger and typically more skilled than the previous castes.

It was still a matter of dispute amongst the yautja whether the royal guards were in fact a separate khainde amedha caste or simply praetorians chosen by the queen of the hive but they were generally larger and bulkier than other praetorians.

The only other caste typical to a hive was the queen although some other forms were known to exist with specific hosts. These rare types were in fact worth more as a trophy than even the queen.

The warrior was getting more and more edgy, had it somehow detected his ship? He was about to kill it when something leapt out of the night. The praetorian disembowelled the warrior in a single slash of it's claws while at the same time driving the tail spike into it's brain.

It wasn't a praetorian he recognised, it appeared the other hive was raising it's game another step.

* * *

><p><p>

The Queen hissed in the darkness of the hive, issuing orders with the proficiency of a veteran commander. This may have been her first hive war but she had enough ancestral memory to know how to conduct it.

The other hive was uninterested in the city itself, the prey rarely entered deep within it, instead the fighting was over the dense forests at the southern outskirts.

So far it had still just been smash and grab style stuff, a bunch of drones disappearing, a warrior that failed to report in at sunset.

Minor stuff, easily replaced. This hive was weak, otherwise it would simply have attacked them directly.

Three more of her warriors had died tonight, each in the eastern half of the city. Just as planned.

So far they had been unable to locate the invading hive but each death led them that little bit closer, that they needed to go through the city meant they were north of here, and the pattern of disappearances indicated that the hive was to the east. It was just a matter of time until they found it.

It was a shame about the warriors, ideally she'd have preferred they'd survived to report the location themselves but all data was good data. And the fighting was getting more intense by the day. Something would have to give, and it wouldn't be her.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: Sorry but Hunter's POV won't appear till next chapter but it will be backdated to his introduction. As always please review with your opinions and suggestions.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: As promised this chapter will have Pvt. Hunter's POV, hopefully by the time I've got round to his I will actually have given him a first name. Now here's the chapter, presumably you want to know what was with the gunfire in the last chapter.

* * *

><p>Alec sobbed softly, hands soaking in the iodine. A faint trickle of blood was pouring out of his mouth where he'd bitten through his lip to avoid screaming. Noone would actually have heard him but it was a pride thing.<p>

On the table behind him the fruits of his labour lay weak and unconscious. Chrome was in a bad way, despite the surgery Alec had performed.

The bullet had managed to slice nick the xenomorph equivalent of the aorta, as well as puncture a lung and leave an exit wound the width of two fingers. Diagnosis, major internal bleeding, major blood loss and respiratory difficulties.

Sadly although some plastic were acid resistant, rubber and latex gloves weren't, at least not to the level required, which could be a problem when he needed to perform what was just one step down from open heart surgery.

Still Chrome was safely tranqued into oblivion so whether she made it through or not at least she wasn't going to be in pain.

The gloves had lasted all of ten minutes, and by that time there were some rather vicious looking acid burns on his wrists and forearms. The first he knew of the gloves failure was when the acid poured into a fingertip, he yanked his hand back, ripping off the gloves and dunking them in a pre-prepared bucket of weak alkali solution, watching as the Ph turned in seconds from vaguely blue to yellow. He then washed his hands in water to be sure the acid was dealt with before putting on another half-a-box of surgical gloves on.

He'd managed to open up the armour plate on the chest before his scalpel had dissolved, and he'd located the nicked artery, which was the most immediate danger.

Now he managed to sew it shut, only for the stitching to dissolve. It was beginning to look pretty desperate for Chrome. He needed something he could use instead of stitching, an idea struck.

It's said that most good ideas are one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, this one was one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent pure insanity. Some window sealants contained a polyalkene chain with acid resistance, it was crazy but if he could pack it around the wound it might just work. Admittedly even it would dissolve in within a day but with the praetorian's superior cell regeneration the wound would likely have closed by then.

About an hour, and second degree chemical burns, later Chrome was at least in a stable condition and Alec was binding his hands. The exit wound had been patched over with a thick sheet of metal, it would corrode in time but the chitinous armour would be the first to heal.

As he refrained from sobbing as the iodine stung the wounds clean, his mind turning to the other guest in his abode. There would be a reckoning, of sorts.

* * *

><p>Piusnex woke groggily, parts of her she hadn't even known could hurt were hurting, her chest felt tight, constricted somehow, she couldn't fill her lungs properly and to top it all she had a splitting headache.<p>

"Human?" She hissed weakly, her headache so bad that the mere thought of any noise as high pitched as echo-locating was painful. "Are you there human?"

Nothing, not even the faintest footfall, but his smell was still strong, he'd been here less than an hour ago. It was odd, before he'd captured her... no. She thought. That was wrong. He'd rescued her, not captured, she was only alive now because he had, unexplainably, saved her life.

Still this was annoying, she'd almost been healed from the predator's attack and now it would take ages to heal the new wound. A mere bullet wound was quite minor but the collapsed lung, and she could tell just from the pain of breathing that a lung had collapsed, would take a while longer.

She was almost glad, she would get to spend another couple of weeks safe with her human. But then what, she wondered, she would heal in time and there would come a time when the human would have no reason to confine her anymore. What if he refused to let her go? Would she be forced to kill him? _Could _she kill him? Did she even want to leave? She wasn't sure anymore.

With little else in the way of options she waited for her human to return.

* * *

><p>Yeythwei followed the praetorian, curiosity overpowering his earlier decision to wait out the hive war in his ship.<p>

The praetorian had been carefully quartering the area, a search method the yautja was familiar with, when it had veered off towards the ooman's lair. Despite himself Yeythwei was amused, he'd seen the fortifications the ooman had done and there was no way a single praetorian would be able to get in. In fact the only way the predator could see khainde amedha defeating the ooman's fortress would be to lay siege to it and starve him out.

Still the praetorian made an effort to get in, tail lightly scratching the thick metal sheets that covered the door, while an attempt at shoulder barging the door in failed to dent or move it. The praetorian gave up and went back to searching.

Yeythwei wondered why the khainde amedha had been drawn there, what had it been looking for? What was a lone praetorian doing this deep in it's enemy's territory? Things just kept getting stranger and stranger.

With no answers forthcoming the yautja returned to it's ship.

* * *

><p>Private Nicholas Hunter scowled as he browsed the supermarket shelves. Sergeant Renalds had managed to break his arm just a couple of days ago so he was doing the supply run solo, it was annoying but there wasn't much he could do about it.<p>

So far there hadn't been much worth having, out of three supermarkets only this one wasn't completely ransacked, and even this one only had a couple of shelves of canned goods left, the rest of the food was way past being edible. And worse still most of it was spam

Sighing he began loading the cans into his backpack, the military issue version was a lot larger than the typical rucksack, in fact the only backpacks he'd seen larger were specific to camping shops.

There was a faint click of claws on plastic to his right, he turned, bringing his gun up automatically but the bug was already in mid jump, he was as good as dead.

There was a loud retort behind him as the bullet managed to almost remove the creature's head. He looked behind him, the man was on one knee, rifle pressed against his shoulder and going from the evidence was clearly a crack shot, ex-special forces perhaps or private security.

Still there was something a bit... odd about his appearance. A greasy ponytail, a t-shirt with some kind of sci-fi slogan on it and cargo trousers, he looked more like a geek than ex-military, a fit geek who could use a rifle but still a geek.

"Follow me, quickly." His tone was urgent, his eyes focused on the dead xeno. Nick couldn't see the point, the thing was dead already.

He followed anyway, it had been ages since they'd found a new survivor. Nick didn't know it but it was standard practice in a life or death situation to simply follow the person who seems to know what they're doing.

The route the man took was extremely unpredictable, every time he heard so much as a hiss the man would go at right angles to the noise for about a hundred metres. Still they eventually made it to some sort of lab. A huge concrete monstrosity jutting out of the ground. That was when Nick's sense of danger first began giving off warning signs.

With the ease that comes of habit the other survivor removed a small grill on the outside, pushed rifle and backpack inside and squeezed in afterwards. Nick did likewise, replacing the grill with some mild difficulty. The vent was probably too small for any xeno to make it in but he'd learnt not to take risks, all of the survivors had.

They made it out of the vents into a large tiled room with a series of benches covered in gear, there was even what appeared to be an open box of handguns in one corner as well as a bunch of ammo boxes stacked against a wall. Nick smiled, it was looking like this supply run wasn't a complete waste of time after all, he'd been expecting some small house with little to no food but this place put the old boot camp they were sheltered in to shame.

"Put your stuff down whereever." The other survivor said, already halfway out the door.

Nick unslung his AK, dumping it alongside his backpack but kept his sidearm, caution a watchword after two years in this hellhole.

He found the survivor in what was either a living room or a study, he was waved into an armchair.

"Welcome to my humble abode," The survivor said smugly, "it's not much but it's home."

"Seems like a lot where I'm sitting." Nick stated flatly.

"Perhaps." The survivor said contemplatively, "Although, if you don't mind my asking, where have you been sitting?"

"Out in the countryside, there was a military complex on the edge of the city," Something of an exaggeration, the old boot camp had maybe five buildings, one of which was mostly tarpaulin, and was kept safe by a jury-rigged electric fence which remained one power spike away from failing. "We're holed up there."

"We? You mean you're not the only one?" The survivor almost yelled, Nick was forced to suppress a smile, Andrews had been like that when they'd found him, terrified that he was the last man alive. Well it wouldn't hurt to give the survivor further incentive to join them.

"Yeah there's five of us. Capt. Williams, Sgt. Renalds and two civvies, like yourself, and me of course."

"And you would be?" The survivor pressed, it was probably only simple curiosity but Nick was starting to get a little on edge from all the questions.

"Pvt. Hunter." Nick replied, emphasising the military title.

"So what brings you to the big city, so to speak?" The survivor asked, declining to introduce himself in turn. The sheer smugness of the guy really starting to grate on his nerves. Still he had to remain cordial.

"A supply run, we're running low on a few things." Nick explained.

"And they sent you on a supply run on your own?" The survivor demanded, apparently shocked.

"Yeah, you're on your own, what's the difference?" Nick demanded in turn, affronted at what was either a clever snub or possibly genuine concern, Nick couldn't be sure.

"I don't have a choice, and I've got the repulsors." It was a fair point if he were honest, and now Nick's curiosity was piqued.

"Repulsors?" He asked.

"I'll explain in the morning. For now, there's a spare bed in the east wing, the entire place is sealed off other than a couple of controlled exits so you're safe from xenomorphs and don't go into my lab until I've had a chance to explain things." The survivor said patiently.

But from the word 'lab' Nick hadn't been listening, he drew his sidearm from his hip. He'd had more than one close run in with Yutani's scientists.

"You from Yutani?" He demanded, sizing up the survivor once more. He'd never seen anyone quite so calm with a gun pointed at them.

The survivor laughed, "Nothing so sinister, I've got someone living there at the moment, they aren't good with people and I just want to explain your presence before I introduce you. Like I said, in the morning, ok?"

Nick grumbled his assent, not believing the weak excuse at all but too tired to question it at the moment before looking for this fabled 'east wing'.

Author's Note: I know I said I'd do a complete catch up but it's been over a months since I updated, sorry about that, all I can say in my defence is that exams play havoc with a writing schedule. Rest of POV to follow next chapter, unless you find Nick's POV too boring.

Also it's pretty safe to say that I won't be finishing the Christmas special this month, on the bright side even I can probably manage that one chapter by December.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Hopefully I'll have enough chapters built up by September to resume with weekly updates. Couple more chapters before I do another time jump, I think. Presumably to the point you're most interested in. Piusnex being released back into the hive.

* * *

><p><p>

Pvt. Hunter wasn't having a good day. He'd just woken up and whatever the bastard scientist had used had given him a headache that put him in mind of a bad hangover.

To cap it all he was also in steel restraints connected to a mortuary slab. And it wasn't too hard to figure out who the previous occupants had been either, the acid damage was something of a giveaway.

Blearily he tried to remember what had happened, he'd entered the lab with the Yutani lackey and then... and then... He shook his head, he couldn't remember.

Idly he tested the restraints in the vague hope there was some give in them, no such luck, not that he'd expected any.

There'd been a xenomorph, that was one fact that came back to him. It had been unusually large. He's been shot with the tranq gun, that also came back, picking up fragments of memory and assembling them piece by piece.

The xenomorph had grabbed the scientist, Alec. Picked him up like a rag doll but there had been something else, before that, something important.

In his mind's eye he saw the spear-like tail lashing towards him, while he pulled the trigger of his gun. He couldn't remember the next bit, there was a sort of blur leading up to the scientist lifted up in the air by the alien's tail, audibly choking.

He remembered raising his gun again, going to shoot. The scientist was shouting something. There was a slight impact on his shoulder as the tranq dart hit him. And then nothing.

It was incredibly frustrating.

There was a sound from behind him, just beyond his line of sight. A slow familiar hissing.

* * *

><p><p>

Piusnex snarled lightly, flexing against her bonds.

"Do not move. Hurt. Self. Stay still." The human's talking box said. Instantly she stilled, trusting the human's advice.

She'd seen it happen herself, what could happen if you overworked a wound. A number of good warriors had been lost that way after they'd defeated the humans.

"How long?" She asked, hoping the human would understand.

A hand was placed gently on the dome of her head, the skin felt different than usual, rougher. She could smell her blood on him.

She knew humans could communicate through facial expression and suddenly wished she could express her gratitude the same way, it was odd, she'd never thought about being anything other than what she was before. Still something deep inside her was aglow, her human had saved her again.

"I don'kt knows." The human spoke, not using his machine for this one, his speech was heavily accented but understandable and she appreciated the effort.

Gentle hands began to undo her bonds, just the ones on her torso but still enough to allow her to behead him with a casual swing of her claws. She wondered why.

"Sit up slowly, I brought food." The machine again but the mention of food more than forgave it's wavering tones.

The praetorian slowly sat up, her legs still bound. Her human placed a semi-sphere like container in her hands, it's speech was too fast for her to quite catch though she did recognise it's name for her.

"Thank you." She said as she stabbed into one of the pieces of meat with a claw, bringing it to her mouth, much like how her human ate. There had been a lot more of the meat lately rather than the fungus stuff he'd first fed her. Not that she minded.

He sat on the slab, sitting next to her, worryingly safe with her presence. It would be so easy to snap out her inner jaws and cave in that delicate skull, or to gut him with a taloned finger, had he forgotten that?

The thought worried her, another first for her, that she should view the fragility of humans as a bad thing.

He waited quietly for her to finish eating before using the machine to talk.

"I need you to talk to a person. Do not kill them. Please." At least that was the rough translation, there was no actual word for please in xenomorph, it was rather pointless considering the caste system meant most conversations were orders so the nearest equivalent was only used between praetorians.

* * *

><p><p>

Alec typed the instruction to stay still into the translator. Surprisingly Chrome obeyed, before hissing.

"How much time?" The translator supplied. Alec guessed she meant until her wounds healed.

He hissed, the harsh tones hurting his throat. Hopefully he'd got it right.

Calmly he removed the manacles, allowing her to sit up. He typed into the translator. Chrome sat up compliently, as he put a bowl of meatballs into her taloned hands, he'd found out that she didn't like them with sauce.

It was amusing to watch her eat, at times she almost seemed human. He supposed in some ways she probably was, her host for example.

Smiling to himself, Alec sat next to her, just resisting the urge to give her a hug, with her wounds so recent it would probably be a bad idea. With a certain solemnity he waited for her to finish her meal before typing his request.

* * *

><p><p>

Yeythwei remained still as he could, watching the khainde amedha crawl over the hull of his ship. His silhouette and electrochemical signal broken up by the bushes he was crouched in.

He had never been quite so angry in his life, his supplies, his trophies and even most of his weapons were on board the ship.

There was nothing to do now other than try to leave the area as quietly as he could.

With a firmly set scowl he crept away to find new accomodation, perhaps a human building would suffice?

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: Yep, no queen this chapter. Hope none of you are too disappointed by my long absence.

Author's Note 2: Was planning to wait to September as I can do regular updates at that point but I may not even have a laptop soon so uploading what little I've got now.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: This chapter was first written on paper while in a town in Peru called Lagunas. While walking. Needless to say my handwriting is borderline illegible.

* * *

><p>Alec watched nervously, not sure what to expect, though the fact Chrome had yet to rend either himself, or his fellow human, limb from limb was probably a good sign. Gently he helped the praetorian to sit down, her spined back shredding yet another chair.<p>

Chrome swatted him away gently, her claws creating the slightest cuts on his shoulder. Alec took the gesture for what it was, her way of saying she didn't need help, even praetorians had their pride.

She hissed softly, sadly his xenomorph wasn't good enough to understand without the translator.

Hearing the sound, his captive began to struggle in earnest though to no avail, and to even less sympathy from Alec.

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said I'm sorry things turned out this way." He commented, removing the soldier's gag.

A globule of spittle caught him in the face. Calmly Alec put the gag back in before wiping it off with his sleeve. There was another long hiss from Chrome.

"I'll take that as a no." Alec sighed, "It's a shame. I'd rather hoped we'd be friends."

In reply the private glared.

"Fine be that- urk!" Alec trailed off as a tail wrapped around his throat, hoisting him into the air. Clearly Chrome had got tired of being ignored.

The praetorian pulled Alec back to her, spinning him so they were face-to-face, her inner jaws darting out to stop, resting softly on his forehead. The threat clear.

Alec tried not to look hurt. Not that it mattered, as far as he was aware Chrome couldn't even 'see' his face in that level of detail.

"Et te Brute?" He quietly commented.

Chrome roared at him, this time Alec understood some of it, and he was angry.

"How dare I?" He yelled. "I have fed you, cared for you, cleaned and stitched your wounds, even turned off the sonic defences for you! I think I've earned a little fucking leeway from you."

In response the praetorian tightened her tail's grip on his throat.

Alec weakly tried to pry her off but without any success. Black spots appeared across his vision, then just darkness tinged with betrayal.

* * *

><p>Piusnex sat down wearily, her wounds aching. Annoyed at her weakness, she swatted the human away, instantly feeling guilty as the scent of blood filled the air. She hadn't meant to cut him.<p>

"I'm sorry, my human." She said softly, somewhat hurt when there was no reply, especially as it was the first time she'd ever vocally laid claim to him.

Still it was understandable, her hiss had scared the angry human, the one she was supposed to let apologise to her. Her human could be so very odd sometimes.

She let her thoughts wander, naturally they quickly focused in on the bane and saviour that was _her_ human.

Twice he'd saved her life now, he'd fed her, he was the only thing keeping her from going home. He was... her friend and finally, she at last realised, she loved him.

At least she thought that's what the joy she felt when he was in the room was, and the fear that he'd get hurt when he wasn't.

Of course the only reference she had to go on was the Queen's own recounts of how she'd felt about her own mate before he'd been killed by the humans.

Now she just had to muster the courage to tell him.

"Human. I need you to listen to me, this is important." She requested, not knowing he didn't have a translator in the room.

He barely even looked up. Why would he be more interested in the human than her? Unbidden anger boiled to the surface. With a casual flick of her tail, her human was brought face-to-face with her. With great precision she stopped her jaws just short of punching though his skull, knowing he'd understand.

"How dare you ignore me! Here I am about to pour my heart out to you and you're more interested in talking to that killer! I love you, you idiot."

Well she'd said it.

In reply her human started shouting at her.

Dying inside she tightened her tail around his throat and held him until he went limp before discarding him.

With that done, Piusnex stood and walked up to the human bound to the table, who was busy whimpering.

It was very kind of her human to give her such a large meal.

* * *

><p>Yeythwei scowled, annoyed at the ease of the kill. Even just his wristblades the oomans had been easy prey. Still they'd survived this long against the khainde amedha so they must have been skilled for oomans.<p>

He had still taken the skulls as trophies, noting that the ooman from the hive was not amongst them. Not that he was worried, the ooman had a great understanding of the hard meat, the chances of him being killed before he could hunt him down was minimal.

At least he had a shelter now, and some guns, primitive though they were.

* * *

><p>The Queen hisses sadly, two praetorians had been killed in a skirmish on the outskirts of the city, though the two had accounted for the deaths of over ten warriors, which, if the other hive was as lacking in prey as she expected, should prove to be a heavy loss. But praetorians were not so easily replaced, their knowledge, personality and insight took time to develop, with nearly all of her veterans dead, the hive was almost leaderless outside of the caves.<p>

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Finally decided on an ending... in other news I probably won't update until the Christmas hols, or half term, also I've been pressured by friends to begin writing an M-rated oneshot with Alec and Piusnex – your thoughts please.<p>

I also am now writing for commission, so if you have something you want written send me a message.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: Merry Christmas all. As promised here's the chapter, right on time. And hopefully an end to the cliffhanger last chapter, one way or the other.

* * *

><p><p>

Yeythwei growled deep in his throat. Something was going on in the hive. Less than an hour ago he'd watched them escort a large praetorian, at least comparatively large, into the hive. Presumably captured from the other hive. A small amount of curiosity was present, even his kind had never seen how the khainde amedha carry out an interrogation. But, with so much of his equipment destroyed or stuck in his ship, it would be suicide, the ooman weapons couldn't be turned invisible and were insufficent for anything beyond a minor hunt.

Instead he continued his task, doing his best to ignore the goings on of the hive, he watched as the water boil, the liquid a familiar red as he boiled the flesh off of the skulls. Despite his earlier scepticism they would prove decent trophies.

He chuckled as a thought occurred. The only other species that had proven skilled in the destruction of the hard meat were the oomans. The khainde amedha killed the oomans, the yautja killed the oomans. The oomans killed the khainde amedha, the yautja killed the khainde amedha and occasionally the oomans and khainde amedha killed the yautja. It was like some kind of bizarre circle or triangle.

Yeythwei shook his head, philosophy wasn't natural to a yautja.

* * *

><p><p>

The Queen rejoiced. Mere minutes ago a runner had come in and announced the capture of a praetorian. It represented a huge inroad into the war, not only was the other hive down a praetorian, apparently a very senior one from the report but they would soon know, with accuracy, the numbers of their foes, the location of their hive and where it was weakest.

She looked around her chamber, noting the sudden restlessness of the royal guards, no doubt worried for her safety. It was a needless worry, even stuck to the ceiling laying eggs she was more than a match for a mere praetorian.

With something nearing joy, she watched the entrance to her chamber. And then the praetorian entered, flanked by a swarm of drones, two of the newer praetorians and five warriors, not taking any chances.

"Hello mother." said Piusnex.

* * *

><p><p>

Piusnex ran on all fours, heading home. Far too eager to return home for the more sedate pace of walking, unfortunately for her, she had discarded caution in her eagerness afterall there was no need for such caution in the hive's territory.

Which was why she had little to no warning when the drones jumped her, three of them leaping from the rooftops onto her back. She lost her footing, rolling expertly back to standing, managing to impale one of the drones with the spines on her back, then she turned, using the motion to whip her tail around, hitting nothing but forcing them to back off if only for a moment.

She allowed herself a brief moment of confidence, two drones against a praetorian was an easy fight. But they didn't strike, almost as if waiting for something.

"Why do you attack me?" Piusnex asked them, not expecting a reply from drones but hoping they'll at least listen. "Can you not tell I am kin?"

She knew they were of the hive, they smelt of home. But she didn't she realised, there was no way they would know her, she'd have to find a praetorian or she'd be forced to slaughter her way through to home.

Fortunately the drones didn't attack, content to wait until reinforcements arrived. And arrive they did, two warriors and an unfamiliar praetorian.

"Can you call them off please?" Piusnex asked, once again the nearest equivalent of please was an order between praetorians which didn't have to be followed.

"Who are you?" The praetorian asked suspiciously, disregarding her request.

"I could ask the same?" She replied, annoyed.

"You're in no position to ask. We have you outnumbered and surrounded." The praetorian replied, clearly confident in his authority.

"Why are you even doing this?" She exclaimed, "I'm hive. I'm with you." There was almost a pleading note to her voice, if it weren't unbecoming of a praetorian to plead, to have come so close to going home to be killed now would be... cruel.

"I'm not an idiot, I do know all the praetorians of the hive and you aren't one of them. Still if you would be kind enough to surrender without a fight then we'll take you before the Queen, she will probably want to talk with you. Ask you about your hive."

"You're an idiot, but ok, I surrender." Piusnex said with a heartfelt sigh, she'd finally defeated the blasted human but rather than the hero's welcome she'd expected she was going to be brought before her mother as a prisoner. She only hoped she'd be the one allowed to punish this arrogant git for doing this to her.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: Yes I'm evil, no I'm not telling you if Alec is dead or not... yet. That will have to wait until Piusnex has caught up on events in the hive. Also it occurs to me that some new characters are in order.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: The new alien castes I'm introducing haven't just been made up, they're all part of the expanded universe

* * *

><p><p>

The Queen watched Piusnex with something approaching caution, the praetorian had been missing for so long, and would clearly have a long tale to tell. But there simply wasn't time for that now.

"You're to go to your room until I call for you." She ordered her, putting aside the issue for the moment.

"No mother, I can't, I've got to-" The praetorian began only to be cut off by the Queen's angry roar.

"Can't! Can't! I am your Queen and I have given you an order." The Queen hissed furiously, almost shaking with rage.

"Mother. I've survived quite well without your orders for months now. Now shut up and let me tell you what I've learnt." The praetorian snapped back.

The Queen stopped, stunned at the rebellion her eldest (surviving) child was showing, noone, not even her long-dead mate, had dared speak to her like that.

Rearing up on her hind-legs she bellowed at the praetorian, "One more word out of you and I'll-"

"No you won't." The insubordinate child cut in. "We both know I'm far too valuable to the hive for you to have me killed, now shut up, I'll be back in a few hours." And with that she left, the poor Queen too lost to answer.

* * *

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Yeythwei forced himself through the vent, the passage slightly too small for a yautja physique, his broad shoulders pressed painfully into the sides.

With a grunt of mild agony he forced himself deeper into the ventilation shaft, idly musing that perhaps it wasn't worth the effort to assuage his curiosity.

He'd been passing the ooman's stronghold, as he did every day in the hopes of catching the man out in the open. But it never happened, he doubted the ooman's cameras could see him, but not once had he emerged at a time when the hunter was waiting.

Today was different, one of the grates the ooman used for access had been torn apart entirely with strength far beyond that of a drone or even a warrior. Which was bizarre for he knew both hives were far too busy to waste praetorians on a single soft meat. Nor was it one of his own kind for no yautja would have torn the grate apart when a single burst of plasma would have done a far more efficient job.

There was another oddity too, the grating was torn outwards as if something had been escaping rather than breaking in.

Oddities aside such an easy shot at the ooman was too good to miss.

Finally he emerged from the vent into a tiled room, clothing was scattered on the floor along with weapons and similar. Their crates knocked over or in some cases smashed. Clearly something had happened.

With difficulty and great annoyance at the confined space Yeythwei ducked under a doorway, blades ready. But there was nothing to attack him... and blood in the air. He could smell it, the thick rich metal, his nose may not have been up to Hard Meat standards but he was certainly better than the oomans.

Finally he found the source of the smell, a torn apart body, mostly eaten, in what was apparently the ooman's control room, going by all the electrical devices, barely noticeable in the well heated room.

It was a pity, he'd have liked to have killed it himself, this particular specimen would have made a fine trophy and it would have been a fitting repayment for the bullet wounds he'd received. Not many ooman skulls were worth boasting about, but this one would have been.

With a touch of regret to his thoughts, the yautja left as quietly as he entered.

* * *

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Piusnex halted outside of the entrance of the human's abode, sniffing deeply. Yautja, she'd missed it by less than an hour. With a feral growl she crept forwards into the vent she'd used to escape, moving slowly due to her wounds and looking furious for those who knew what to look for. The predator had better not have touched her human or there would be hell to pay.

Slowly she moved to her room, stepping over her lunch as she pushed open the door. And there was her human, right where she'd left him. Stuck to the wall by a thick patch of 'resin', the substance used to build a xenomorph hive. Gagged and immobilised, her human glared furiously at her whilst she carefully levered him off of the wall, before spitting another layer of the substance over him. Sitting on his wheeled chair to wait for it to dry.

"I'm sorry my human, but I need to take you to the hive, I can't just keep visiting you here. It's too dangerous right now, there's a hive war. If just one drone got in here, with you stuck like that... well I think you can guess." She hissed softly, stroking his cheek with a claw, though even that drew a thin line of blood.

The praetorian growled in annoyance, the smell of blood would make him almost impossible to sneak into the hive. She'd have to douse him in water first. Still there was a river just ten minutes away so that shouldn't prove a problem.

With the resin set, she picked him up in her arms, screeching briefly at the stabbing pain in her chest whilst cradling him like a mother with a child, electing not to throw the biped over a shoulder for fear of impaling him on one of the spines on her back, or hurting her further.

Then, slowly and carefully, she headed back out through the vent, ignoring the muffled complaints of her human as he squirmed weakly in her grasp.

* * *

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Alec tensed his arms as hard as he could, straining against the sticky resinous bonds, now long set and so stuck to his clothes and skin, quite painfully in fact. No joy though as the resin held, despite an hour of struggling he hadn't shifted it even slightly.

Despite all logic he was actually quite offended, he'd grown to trust Chrome, and to end his days starving to death on a wall was a rather cruel treatment for helping her recover from her own wounds.

A noise outside caught his attention. For just a moment he was tempted to scream, muffled though it would be, before he remembered that the only things that might here him were xenomorphs. No point handing himself a death sentence, he might still wriggle free.

The noise went away, and, after ten minutes more of writhing against his confinement, Alec collapsed limp to fall asleep.

Awakening later, he didn't know how much, to another noise, the young man was shocked at the level of anger he experienced as Chrome walked into the room.

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Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long, thank you to everyone who reads this, the number of reviews I've been getting have been quite gratifying even in the absence of my writing. I owe you all a further apology, I'm going to university next year so once more updates will be intermittent. Though I'm told there are long holidays so with luck I should manage at least four chapters over the next twelve months.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: I've been envisaging this scene for some time, it's nice to have finally reached the point where I can write it. Alec may have shown Piusnex his world, now she gets to return the favour.

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Alec squirmed in his bindings, though not very effectively. Chrome had rather skilfully stuck him to the wall with whatever it was that xenomorphs used to make their hives. His research had been shockingly lacking in that department, the production of a good solvent for the stuff well beyond his knowledge and equipment.

The praetorian, whom he'd regarded until a few hours ago as a friend, had been remarkably thorough, making the coating particularly thick on his joints to limit his movement as well as glooping over his mouth, rendering him voiceless.

The xenomorph had ambled away just ten minutes and already he was going mad from pent up energy and anger. Unable to move his only option was to stew in his thoughts and marinate in his outrage, whilst pondering what Chrome had in store for him; afterall if the praetorian wanted him dead then he would be, and there were no eggs in the room with him. Her motives were very much a mystery then.

He was also becoming increasingly fearful, all it would take right now is a single drone or praetorian to walk past and his death would be inevitable.

Stuck with just his thoughts for company, Alec waited for Chrome's return.

* * *

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Piusnex made her way to her mother's chamber with a combination of trepidation and dread. She had stepped way out of line in her confrontation, and knew it, but some things were more important than a fear of rocking the boat. Her human was more important.

As she walked into the Queen's chamber she made a point of standing tall, putting on a front of bravery she certainly didn't feel.

"You defied me." The statement was cold and somehow still astonished.

"It was needed. I had things to do." Piusnex tried to respond in the same cold manner, keeping it factual.

"What could be more important than my will?"

Upon a time the answer would have been nothing, but now the praetorian could think of a plethora of things she would qualify as more important. Her mother may have been an efficient leader but she had no appreciation for anything beyond simple survival, it occurred to her that xenomorphs could be so much more than that.

In way of actual answer Piusnex said, "I was captured by the human, now I am back I needed to know if the hive had changed much while I was gone, I wanted to feel at home again." It was only half a lie.

"I will allow it to pass this once, don't make a habit of it."

"I won't mother, I won't."

* * *

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The Queen suppressed her happiness, the child had been surprisingly easy to deal with. It was after all, a mere moment of exuberance at being home rather than the fully fledged rebellion she'd been preparing to put down. Still she would have to ensure her daughter was kept away from the new praetorians, they were too young and impressionable, a scouting mission deep into the enemy hive's territory was likely called for, a permanent mission.

Problem dealt with the Queen turned to her latest brood, a clutch of Ravager eggs, one of the tree war machines of the xenomorph race, mindless creatures of pure destruction, guidable only by her and able to follow only the most basic instructions, few Queens would dare to create such a weapon, a ravager, if it got outside her influence, would be like a deathblow to any ecosystem it found itself in. Now she merely needed the hosts to hatch them.

* * *

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Author's Note: Naturally I'm apologising for my tardiness, but for once it isn't the fault of laziness or workload, I lended my friend my laptop for a couple of hours and he deleted the file by accident, over a thousand words lost, it took me two weeks of staring at the screen to hack this out.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: Fun fact, the original plot had Alec and The Queen as the happy couple. Go figure.

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With consummate stealth, Yeithwei approached the hive. The yautja barely able to suppress the slight tremor of fear, niggling at the back of his mind as he skirted around the ravager; the hard meat equivalent of a nuclear option. A mindless, instinct driven war machine beholden only to the Queen. Even the other hard meat avoided it lest they provoke its lethal ire.

Yeithwei was of a different view, he may have felt fear, but he also felt, and embraced, a great avarice. To claim this creature's skull would be the trophy of a lifetime. To do it without a plasma caster would be the stuff of legend.

Slowly he got into position, a small outcrop of rock which would allow him to leap onto the creature's back where, if fortune smiled upon him, his blades would be able to reap a bloody toll before he was dislodged. In his mind's eye the hunter played out the fight; once dislodged he would open fire with one of the human's projectile weapons, though it was unlikely the primitive firearms would, or even could, cause a fatal wound.

Once the clip ran dry or the ravager closed the distance; whichever occurred first, the gun would be discarded as he duelled the massive hard meat, avoiding the terrible claws and muscular tail, almost a mace as much as a blade. After that he would have to tire the massive creature, waiting for it to bleed out.

Plan decided Yeithwei tensed to spring into action. The leap never came as a second ravager joined its brother. Only a few yautja had ever slain two of the dread inspiring variants of the hard meat in a lifetime, and never at once. He was utterly outmatched.

At the very moment this humbling thought occurred to him a third stepped out of the cave into the evening gloom, the sharp contrast of temperatures actually making the yautja's vision clearer and sharper than normal. Seconds later a fourth joined the growing group.

The ravagers weren't alone either as a praetorian, quite heavily scarred, emerged from the cave mouth, accompanied by a small retinue of warriors and runners, four of each. For a moment Yeithwei almost felt pity for the hive about to be on the receiving end of this deadly task force.

But the strangest detail of all was the ooman being clutched protectively to the praetorian's chest, much to its protest. The ooman kicking and hitting and, unless Yeithwei's magnification lenses were malfunctioning, trying to scratch it with his fingernails, no doubt already a host in its final hours of life, desperately raging at the world in general.

He was almost tempted to put the poor creature out of its misery, but suicide was not a habit he wanted to develop, on the basis that it would be bad for his health.

Still such a disparate and dangerous group was certainly worth following. By staying in their wake he would have unparalleled opportunities for greatness.

* * *

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Alec gently rubbed his wrists whilst stretching his legs as best he could in the small cavern he'd been unceremoniously deposited in. He did his best to suppress a look of gratitude towards Chrome, it would have been classic Stockholm Syndrome to be grateful to his captor for cutting him down from the resinous wall when she'd been the one who put him there.

Despite this realisation he was not entirely able to suppress a single brief moment of goodwill aimed at the towering praetorian, unable, even when furious beyond his abilities to give voice to his problems, to keep a certain fondness from his gaze when he sighted the slightly marred but still highly reflective dome of her skull, even more distinctive and easy to recognise now that it had been before. He'd tended the wounds that had made those scars and knew every single one of them by sight and touch.

As he removed the stiffness from disused muscles he became ware that he was being watched by her quite intently, the xenomorph moving her head ever so slightly, a minute back and forth motion. It was an unconscious gesture Alec had surmised meant Chrome was trying to 'see' in greater resolution than norma, her echolocation building a series of ever-so-slightly different pictures that her mind would compile into a single more precise image. Something, and this was an observation thus far unique to Chrome, she only did when nervous.

Alec scowled at the praetorian, "So is this the part where you kill me?" The demand was cold and harsh where he tried to keep the fear out of his voice.

Chrome recoiled as if punched, her expression unreadable to the human before she leapt forwards to wrap clawed arms around him in a crushing embrace.

Alec closed his eyes as death bore down upon him, ten seconds later his eyes opened again as razor sharp claws failed to scratch, let alone rend, his soft, malleable flesh.

The embrace was uncomfortable to the point of removing his ability to breath but still with the strength of the praetorian and the hindrance of her claws, it was comparable to a human delicately grasping the finest pottery shell in the world.

The realisation was a shock to Alec as some of the implications trickled through to his conscious. He was not Chrome's prisoner, he was her guest... and her friend. Guilt flooded like ice water through his veins as he gingerly returned the hug, his own arms not long enough to encircle Chrome entirely and his grasp was excessively gentle as he avoided the spikes on her back.

The reaction in his xenomorph friend was immediate, a quiet purr-like sound which reverberated through the small cave, the echoes making it seem as if a horde of cats were occupying the space rather than a xenomorph and a human. A scene usually followed by desperate pleas for mercy cut short.

Gently Alec found himself released, Chrome resuming her observations of him. For a moment Alec forgave her everything, and then her tail swung around, the flat of it catching him across the jaw and he knew no more.

When he awoke he was once more stuck to the wall alone, a situation he was growing increasingly both annoyed with and tired of. Still, accounting for the apparent guest status he was currently enjoying, it was at least safe to call for help.

"Chrome!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, soon rewarded with the heavy approach of a praetorian, the xenomorph, usually so unnaturally quiet, making not attempts to hide its presence within the safety of the hive.

Something about this observation struck Alec as awry but he couldn't quite place the reason, at least until the praetorian emerged into the dim gloom of the cave.

It wasn't Chrome. Perhaps a small part of him had known from the beginning that this was the case. He would never have heard his praetorian's approach, for such a large specimen of the caste she could move with deceptive silence whereas this smaller example of what was essentially the officer class of a xenomorph hive was outright broadcasting its presence, a mistake Chrome would never make he realised, not after the nearly fatal injuries inflicted by the alien hunter within her own home.

This depth of observation surprised him, it was strange to think how much he had attuned himself to the xenomorph's moods and the nuances of her behaviour in so short a time. The companionship provided by her, however unwillingly at first, was now something he could not imagine living without anymore. It had made him realise how lonely he'd been in those many months where survival had been his only concern; he wasn't sure he could return to that way of life again.

Right now though his main concern was not his quality of life but merely its continuation, the praetorian, young even to Alec's eyes, was not responding positively to his presence, a rapidly hissed sentence was issued, too fast for the human to understand with his limited grasp of the xenomorph language.

The praetorian advanced upon him, rearing up to its full height as it examined this intruder within its hive.

And then Chrome was there, pushing it away from him with a shriek of pure fury. Her foe backed away, hissing indignantly as the large praetorian blocked its escape route.

The conversation was quick and hard to follow but from the circumstances and the words he could pick out Alec could gather the gist of it. The smaller praetorian wanted to know what he was and why Chrome was hoarding prey as well as something to do with the Queen.

Chrome on the other hand was, as best he could tell, begging for his silence and all the while the massive praetorian blocked all attempts to leave the cave. Her lithe, sinuous form large enough that even when her foe took to the walls and ceiling it could not slip past the tunnel's guardian. Eventually the smaller one whom Alec decided to assign the moniker of Shorty – it really was the smallest praetorian he'd ever seen – had had enough and charged Chrome directly.

It might as well have charged a moving train head on for all the effect it had, Chrome merely punching it lightly in the side of the head, dazing it before an uppercut knocked it backwards into a heap.

Alec hissed as a few drops of acidic blood landed on his exposed shoulder, his shirt providing scant protection as it dissolved, the acid neutralising on his skin. He was fortunate Chrome hadn't used her claws to simply open its throat.

The praetorian clearly had a different view on Chrome's restraint as it quickly rose to its feet, lunging forwards to claw at the slanted dome of her skull.

Chrome gracefully ducked under the blow, driving her fist into its body, a series of bodyblows which left cracks in its natural armour. Her opponent collapsed, desperate for air, and then promptly answered a question on xenomorph biology that Alec had never thought to ask. It turned out it was fully possible for a xenomorph to vomit.

Utterly pitiless Chrome lifted it by the throat, her other hand, clenched so tight her claws were drawing her own blood, coming around to hit the praetorian and then again, and again, and again as she began the slow process of beating it to death. Shorty was no longer even trying to fight back.

"Stop."

He wasn't sure why he said it, why he told her to spare the creature he was pretty sure had been going to kill him, perhaps some kernel of pity for the beaten creature, its limp form so pathetic in Chrome's grasp, or perhaps some lost vestige of his pre-invasion morals, the belief in the sanctity of life, reasserting themselves.

Startled, Chrome turned to face him, a short hiss as she spoke the xenomorph word for why.

Alec paused, unable to explain something to her that he could not even explain to himself. "Please; just stop."

His friend paused, uncertain before letting go of her foe, instead moving directly in front of Alec and like her foe before her rearing up to her full height.

The deadly claws lashed out, causing Alec to brace himself instinctively, though his mind may have accepted her benevolence, his reflexes had not. Bonds expertly bisected, he fell into her waiting arms.

* * *

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Piusnex had been heading back from yet another tactical meeting with the Queen when she had heard the shout, her mother, despite her earlier reservations, welcoming her back with an apparently heartfelt relief at having someone with more than a basic grasp of strategy.

Her new position as the elder praetorian was taking some getting used to, it was not a position she had ever aspired to but, she was beginning to realise, this was because she had never aspired to anything before now: the possibilities were startling.

Thinking something wrong she had burst into a run. She was far from from her cave, the small part of the hive that was hers alone, the echoes of the cave system broadcasting her human's voice and presence deep into the hive.

It proved fortunate that she'd responded with such urgency for as she entered her home she saw one of her worst fears made manifest. Desturbatio, the arrogant praetorian which had taken such joy in capturing her, was towering over her human.

Rage, too pure and powerful to articulate with words, overwhelmed her as she dove forwards, tackling the intruder that dared violate her sanctum.

Desturbatio broke away, making distance even as she moved back to block the entrance, realising that she could not allow him to tell the Queen; the consequences of her secret coming to light from someone other than herself were too dreadful to contemplate.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, pacing from side to side as he sought a gap to dash through.

"Protecting my property." Piusnex stated with implacable resolution in her voice, no matter what happened she would protect her human from the consequences.

Desturbatio took a while to answer, the idea of possessing something was foreign to him, the hive could own but the individual could not; as it was Piusnex had broken several grammatical rules by placing a possessive word after a pronoun. "You cannot hoard prey." He said slowly, mind wrestling with the concept.

"He is not prey." Again there was no compromise in the words, less an opinion than a statement of fact.

This only confused the younger praetorian further; all things were either of the hive or prey. There was no middle ground. As he pondered this an ancestral memory surfaced.

It was not unknown for a drone to go mad after eating contaminated prey, the drones at first merely acting irrationally, their symptoms progressing to violence towards all those around them and foaming at the mouth before, inevitably, death.

And worse still any bitten by it would eventually succumb to the same illness, if Piusnex were suffering from this disease then the fate of the entire hive might rest upon his choiced.

As calmingly as he could Desturbatio answered her, "Not prey, ok, does the Queen know about you keeping it here?"

Piusnex growled lightly, not enjoying being patronised, "It isn't any of her business."

"All things that happen in the hive are her business." stated the male with firm resolve before trying to dart past her, using the walls as a springboard.

Piusnex was too well prepared and too well positioned, a single step to the side allowing her to block his path.

The praetorian, out of some blind sense of duty, charged her only to be punched in the head, a perfect cross, her claws carefully kept out of the way, not for his sake but for Alec's, an arc of arterial spray would prove fatal for her human. She winced, a sharp hiss between her teeth as despite her care a pained outburst was voiced by the immobile figure on the wall.

The uppercut that followed had enough strength behind it to nearly flip her foe in midair, Desturbatio landing in an untidy heap, yet, though the blow would have almost removed a human's head from their shoulders, he merely rolled to his feet, lunging forwards with claws outstretched.

Piusnex almost smile at the rookie mistake, a good fighter knew not to overreach and she punished him for it accordingly. She felt the thick chitin give way under her punch, forcing air from his lungs as she followed up with a further four sledgehammer blows to his stomach.

The small praetorian retched, his stomach acids vicious enough to dissolve part of the hive's floor.

Without mercy she grabbed him by the throat, lifting him as her other hand drove into his upper body, she felt something break beneath the impact as the praetorian stilled, starved of oxygen. There was no going back now she decided, driving another titanic blow into his liver, striking each major organ in murderous precision.

"Stop."

She nearly ignored the quiet command, her fist drawing back one last time before it fully registered.

Spinning on the spot she faced her human. "Why spare him?" She demanded.

"Please, just stop."

Perhaps it was because he'd asked, voice so pleading, or perhaps it was the thought that if he, the intended victim, could find it within himself to spare the foolhardy xenomorph then so could she.

Either way she slowly lowered Desturbatio to the floor as she contemplated the consequences of this act of charity, she only had one option still available to her.

She would have to introduce Alec to the Queen.

* * *

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The Queen glared as Piusnex strode into view, "You appear to be lost, daughter. Your cave is elsewhere in the hive."

The praetorian remained defiant in the face of admonishment, "We need to talk Mother." There was something wrong with her posture, it took the Queen a moment to realise she was cradling something in her arms, hiding it against her chest.

"What are you hiding? Show me!" She demanded, unused to the concept of negotiation, never before had she encountered anything she couldn't simply give orders or have killed.

"I intend to Mother. But not before I've explained things to you." Piusnex promised, a master of diplomacy by comparison. "I'm going to request you don't interrupt beyond asking questions until I've finished explaining, and then I'll await and accept your judgement." Even as she said it Piusnex realised that was a lie, the Queen no longer had the right to judge her.

Fortunately the Queen took this at face value, pausing to consider whether to acquiesce to the request, afterall she had nothing important to do until the ravagers hatched, and she was curious to know why her eldest daughter had reeked of human since she'd got back.

"Very well daughter." She said, careful to keep the curiosity from her voice. "I'll listen."

* * *

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Author's Note: Thank you all for being so patient with me. Partially the delay has been due to uni, but also because I very much regard this as my best fic, some may get more views and faves but this is my piece de resistance and so I've spent the last few months trying to hone my craft. I hope it was worth the wait. And yes, I have made it that in this fanon xenomorphs can get rabies.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: I'd like to give a quick thank you to those few souls who have been with me on this fic from the days it was a six hundred word stub. We've come a long way, the plot has twisted and turned, even completely rewritten itself a time of two. This chapter feels very much like a waypoint, an obstacle overcome as well as an opportunity to test a new style to represent the increasing closeness of Alec and Piusnex's lives.

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"I can still remember the pain of it." Piusnex began quietly, hugging the quiet bundle in her arms, the human wincing slightly, the praetorian glad beyond words when the Queen appeared not the notice the gentle sound, "Waking up after the yautja attack. It was as if I'd into water at the very verge of freezing, so painful it was almost numbing. I'd been expertly immobilised by the human, I was right in the very core of his sanctum, his lair."

She paused, giving the Queen time to absorb the information and perhaps even question it.

"Why would the human save you?" She pondered aloud, mulling over the facts in her head and unable to reach any logical conclusion.

"I honestly haven't the slightest inkling even after all this time." Piusnex admitted with amusement, "But as I was saying, as I lay there, upon the cold metal slab, alone in the darkness, something spoke to me, but it spoke nonsense. It was only much later I would realise that it was the human, trying to communicate through its machines, at the time it sounded like a praetorian driven past the point of madness." She chuckled wryly, the memory a fond one when viewed through the rosy lens of time. "Of course now I know what was actually going on. He was simply trying to reassure me."

"Who is 'he'?" The Queen demanded suspiciously.

"The human. He'd trained one of his machines to speak the language of the Hive, trained it badly I'll admit, but it improved over time."

"It spoke to you?" The Queen asked aghast, "Then why have they never done so before?"

Piusnex gave the xenomorph equivalent of a knowing smile, baring her teeth more prominently, "I'd imagine because no human or xenomorph have survived in each other's presence long enough for even a minute lexicon to evolve."

Her mother appeared to give this due thought, an unusual occurrence, before replying thoughtfully, "I'd certainly class that as a definite possibility."

"Before I finally escaped he'd even begun trying to speak Hive himself, though he isn't very good at it." Even as she said it the praetorian knew she'd slipped up.

"Isn't. The human still lives?" The Queen inquired sharply, far more perceptive than her daughter would have wished.

"Let me finish Mother." Piusnex ordered, surprisingly assertive and even more surprisingly the Queen listened, however begrudgingly, "I believe I was describing my first day in captivity before I digressed, it's just that I've learnt so much about them, the things they can do with machines, you wouldn't believe some of it."

"I fail to see the importance." The Queen declared imperiously, "The humans are dead, it does not matter even if they could fly. They are dead and shall remain so."

"Or not." said a quiet voice from Chrome's arms.

The praetorian froze, guilt, fear and shock competing for dominance of her expression.

"What is that? Show me." The Queen demanded.

A gentle hand placed itself on Piusnex's arm. "It is ok." Her human assured her, "this was-" He paused, vocabulary not quite sufficient to express the concept succinctly, "-going to happen in time."

She paused but realised her human was right, the time for secrecy was past and perhaps it was for the best that her human had revealed himself on his own terms. Gently she gave him a reassuring squeeze, wanting him to know that no matter what happened next she would support him in it before setting him down on his feet.

As the extent of her daughter's treachery became clear the Queen was almost incandescant in her rage. Yet as she prepared to launch a near nuclear tirade of vitriol and fury she was interrupted, pre-emptively, by a calm, determined and cheerful voice albeit rendered near incoherent from the thick accent. "Mother I know-"

Piusnex tapped him gently upon the shoulder, leaning down to whisper urgently in his ear.

"Regrets, my error. My Queen I know you have no reason to trust me, but I mean no death to you. Knowing the praetorian has altered my living." He said falteringly, forced to dredge his memory for the correct words. "I friend her. Close friend, save her life. Mean lot to me. Please don't kill me."

It was not a particularly eloquent speech but it came from the heart and the Queen appeared to be genuinely considering his words; or perhaps was simply too stunned to react by the existance of a human who could speak her language.

Finally, after sever tense, silent minutes, the Queen pronounced her judgement.

"I will give you a chance. Don't waste it." She declared with begrudging imperiousness, doing her best to seem regal yet wise and contemplative in the face of her unexpected audience. Ironically it was a wasted effort when considering that Alec's knowledge of xenomorph body language and intonation was specifically keyed to Chrome's. Perhaps he might have been able to venture a guess as to the body language of another praetorian, especially considering that, unlike drones, runners and warriors, praetorians incorporated the bare minimum of host DNA and thus shared remarkably similar physiologies.

In many ways this adaptive mechanism was the primary reason for xenomorph success across the galaxy, whatever planet they arrived on the drones would adapt almost perfectly to the environment by expressing features present in the dominant species.

This extreme physical morphology however meant that the body language varied from caste to caste as well as from planet to planet, and thus there was no possible way for Alec to correctly interpret the Queen's regal pose.

"I won't." The human replied calmly, almost radiating peace and serenity in his scent. He didn't fear the aliens; not anymore.

The Queen ignored this entirely, dismissing the small creature from her mind, instead focusing upon her errant daughter, "If you want this human to live then I'm making it your responsibility. It is now your property, you are responsible for keeping it sheltered, fed and watered, if it harms the hive I'm holding you responsible."

"Understood." Piusnex said warmly, grateful beyond her ability to express.

"While you're here I have a job for you. There's a batch of ravagers about to hatch, I need a praetorian to lead them, as the eldest you're the only one with the experience and level head needed to lead them."

"That's a risky play." Piusnex observed coolly, "We've only ever had the one ravager before and we had to put it down."

"I know, that's another reason I want you to lead. You've killed one before, you can do it again."

"Very well. I'll need drones. And warriors." She said calmly, treating the scenario as an exercise in tactics.

"Why?"

"Ravagers are slow, lumbering. Drones could overwhelm them using swarm tactics, having drones of my own to lead will prevent this." The praetorian reasoned, "You clearly want this strike force to wreak destruction upon the enemy hive. A mixed force has the best chance of success."

"With a force that strong you might as well ask for a full assault." The Queen growled, unimpressed thus far.

"That was something else I was going to suggest, twenty drones and two of the other praetorians perform a full frontal assault on the hive whilst we enter through a secondary entrance with the intention of killing their Queen."

"You do realise you've changed the entire objective of this mission and committed a fifth of the hive in a single stroke?"

"Of course Mother. But this way we can win the war in a single surgical strike rather than just causing massive casualties in a suicide mission." Piusnex effused enthusiastically.

"It's risky. I don't like it." The Queen complained.

"But will you allow it?"

There was a very long pause before finally the Queen appeared to reach a decision.

"Yes. But on one condition; the human goes with you."

"No!" She gasped, "It's too dangerous, he'll be killed."

"It's the only way this happens." The Queen stated firmly, utterly implacable on this point. "I won't have it wandering the hive unsupervised, and it's not like it hasn't proven it can defend itself."

"But this is different Mother. This is a war, not day to day survival." The praetorian complained, terrified that her human would be killed.

"Do you trust it?"

"I trust him." Piusnex declared with absolute certainty, emphasising the gender-specific pronoun ever so slightly.

"Then give it one of the human projectile weapons and armour."

"I really can't persuade you otherwise?" The praetorian tried one final time, aware giving the human armour was a token gesture at best. A drone's claws would tear through it as if it were less than paper.

"No. As I said, this is your chance to prove the worth of you and your human." The Queen said pointedly.

"Very well Mother. I will comply." Chrome conceded graciously, her human sticking close to her as she left the room.

Alec hadn't understood most of what have been said, the conversation too quick and his lexicon too limited, but clearly he was being given a chance, with some sort of task involved.

To finally be at peace with the hive... it would be a truly life-changing achievement for him.

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'That had certainly been an unexpected development.' The Queen thought to herself.

Of course her daughter was right about the attack at least, she'd always had a skilled tactical outlook.

The human changed things drastically, the Queen decided in calm hindsight. A highly valuable resource if exploited properly, and thus Piusnex became even more valuable herself as the only one able to hold the metaphorical leash. She didn't even pretend to understand the relationship between the two but it didn't matter. What mattered was how best to exploit it.

Piusnex had earned herself an extended lease of life.

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Author's Note: Finally we have plot progression once more.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note: And so I return to this fic as one returns to an old friend. For like an old friend it is a great comfort and source of cheer in hard times. I hope you all get a similar pleasure from reading it.

Danger often strikes when people feel safest. It is perhaps one of of the cruellest of life's great secrets. A dark prophecy whose sole purpose is self-fulfilment, for it is only when people feel safe that even the most paranoid may drop their guard, and thus, alas, Piusnex was feeling very safe indeed as she returned home from the Queen's cavern, with the Queen's blessing, however conditional and reluctant, there was no longer the constant fear of discovery, her home felt like home once more. Despite this she couldn't entirely shake the feeling she'd forgotten something.

The something she'd forgotten barrelled into her side, several hundred kilos of furious praetorian all put towards the singular goal of killing her as messily as possible.

Piusnex went sprawling, the human fall from her arms, his small frame tumbling across the ground even as she collided head first with a wall.

Blindsided as she had been, there hadn't even been time to brace against the impact.

Groggily she rose to her feet to see Desturbation bearing down upon the defenceless human, Alec still rubbing his head, vision blurry and ears ringing, the human already fearing a mild concussion, yet to get back to his feet as he ran a quick catalogue of his injuries.

She didn't even hesitate, crossing the distance in a single bound to tackle the smaller praetorian to the floor, barely remembering in time to use fist rather than claws. Each strike drawing a small thunderclap from her foe's domed skull.

Desturbation was under no such handicap and thus his claws began the violent process of making bloody shreds of the elder's praetorian's chest, though as bad as the wounds looked, Piusnex's thick chitin armour reduced all the cuts to little more than superficial scratches, the praetorian's age particularly telling in the strength and thickness of her armour and so, though the cuts bled profusely no real damage was done.

As his claws tried to slice open her chest, Desturbatio's tail was also in play, poised to strike cleanly into Piusnex's back and through to her heart, the organ still recovering from its gunshot wound and emergency surgery.

The strike never happened, unprepared and overwhelmed as she was, Piusnex still had volumes more fighting experience than her opponent, her own tail wrapping around his, her greater strength showing through as she pinned his tail to the floor with sufficient force to snap the tip.

Desturbatio roared in anger and wounded pride but try as he might the fight seemed a stalemate as his foe grabbed his wrists, neither able to land a telling blow any more. Short of waiting in vain for the struggling Piusnex to bleed out, or for the weaker praetorian's strength to give out, there seemed little that either of them could achieve short of a headbutt, and neither of them was fool enough to get close to the punching inner jaws.

Neither of the had reckoned upon Alec, the human having gotten shakily to his feet to the sight of his closest friend in a tense deadlock, fighting for her life. For a moment his mind flashed back to the last time he'd been in this position, a different friend, a different time in his life. He'd ran then, ran and not looked back, to the sound of desperate pleas eventually, mercifully, cut short.

He didn't run this time.

Cautiously he skirted around the wrestling pair the human stopped at their heads, carefully reaching through the melee to fasten both hands around the smaller praetorian's throat, squeezing down with his fingers as he drove his thumbs into the lightly protected cartilage.

Panicked, Desturbatio's struggles redoubled but slowly grew weaker and weaker until ceasing altogether.

As Piusnex disentangled herself from her foe, Alec could feel the life beneath his fingers begin to ebb.

He pondered what to do next, almost detached, as if it were someone else's hands that were currently choking someone to death, eyes drawn to the two missing fingers on his left hand, noting the puckered flesh that had healed over the formerly burnt flesh. A moment of perfect awareness and clarity as his mind ran in the background, seeing without seeing as he considered whether to keep squeezing until that weak puled faded forevermore or to show mercy to a creature which had met such attempts with merely further violence.

Alec let go. Not yet willing to cross the line would make him a murderer, for he knew that should he step over it, as small and easy as it seemed, it was line he could only ever cross one way.

The human was jolted from his reverie as a single clawed finger gently tilted his chin up, forcing him to stare into the face of death.

He smiled up at her, examining Chrome with the same concerned intensity with which she examined him. He imagined he could feel the infrasound pulses washing over him as she checked him for even the slightest bruise.

Concluding her charge was safe, Piusnex gently, almost tenderly, lowered her forehead to his, noting with mild hurt the momentary stiffness to his form and pheromonal fear in the air as the deadly jaws – easily capable of punching cleanly through his skull – entered what in most circumstances would be considered optimum range. Fortunately for their friendship and budding, if one-sided, romance it was merely a moment of misplaced instinct and her human more than made up for it as he wrapped both arms about her neck, pulling, by trust alone, the heavier praetorian into a close hug, Chrome having to stoop significantly to avoid the awkward situation accidentally lifting him into the air; presuming Alec's arms had the strength for it.

The stoop should have made her uncomfortable yet, somehow, Piusnex had never been so comfortable in her life, chest full of a strange warmth she couldn't quite name, a mix of contentment, joy and something else.

Alec had a similar experience, for though the praetorian's armoured form had about as much give to it as the average wall, as Chrome's arms encircled him, the simple inestimable warmth of knowing there was someone who game a damn if you lived or died.

The two held each other for but a few tender moments before Alec was forced to pull away, acidic blood from her wounds raising blisters on his skin after having successfully burnt through his increasingly ragged and tattered shirt.

Piusnex looked apologetic, realising what had happened from the slight wince that even Alec's exception tolerance to pain could not entirely conceal. Fortunately the bleeding has slowed to little more than a lethargic ooze as the wounds scabbed over; they'd continue to hurt for hours but, as long as she didn't overexert, would prove no real danger to her health. With the highly acidic nature of xenomorph biochemistry only the most aggressive and durable infections stood a chance of taking residence in her wounds. Though conversely, as this meant that as a species they'd never had to evolve an effective immune response, any infection that took hold was almost invariably fatal.

An awkward stillness descended as both pondered their next move, or rather they both pondered Piusnex's next move, Alec fully aware that within the confines of the hive his free will would seldom see more than lip-service.

With a hissed sigh the elder praetorian picked up her younger brother's insensate body, hoisting him unceremoniously over her shoulder before lifting Alec rather more gently up onto the other shoulder despite a token protest from the human.

Annoyed beyond measure by this latest development, and buoyed by the adrenaline from the fight, Piusnex had little trouble carrying them both as she returned once more to the Queen's chamber in the hope that her mother would still be in a reasonable enough mood not to rescind Alec's promise of safe passage within the hive and would instead focus her ire upon the luckless Desturbatio whom even the most subjective observer in all of known history, human, xenomorph or otherwise, would be forced to admit was not having a good day, as self-inflicted as it may have been.

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Within her chamber the Queen was deep in thought, slowly mulling over the miraculous, possibly even unique, circumstances which had, unasked and unsought, befallen her hive.

She knew how dangerous humans could be, especially at a distance, and the thought of human weapons turned to her benefit was an enticing thought indeed, almost as enticing as catching one of the dreaded yautja alive, though the chance of obtaining a xenomorph-yautja hybrid was essentially nill, the hunters preferring to kill themselves rather than be captured alive.

Without anger clouding her judgement she could easily see that letting the human live had been the correct decision, particularly as it ensured Piusnex's continuing loyalty and it would provide valuable leverage should her eldest daughter show any further signs of rebellion or independence, as synonymous as the two concepts seemed to her. There was however a single change she planned to make to their deal, Piusnex was far too skilled a commander to be wasted on looking after a human.

Should they both return alive she would have to place the human under the care of one of the younger praetorians, Natus-Occisionis perhaps, her youngest daughter, or perhaps Desturbatio, the praetorian may have been less than a year old but he'd shown great competence thus far.

No sooner had the thought passed across her mind, Piusnex entered like a poorly placed plot device, gently putting her ward down upon his feet before roughly throwing Disturbatio's battered form unceremoniously to the floor.

With slow deliberation, the Queen drew herself up to her full height, towering over even the praetorians. "Explain the meaning of this, my daughter." She demanded imperiously, not angry yet but certainly concerned.

"The praetorian tried to murder my human." The elder praetorian stated, keeping her story simple and true if not technically honest, lies of omission requiring less memory and imagination. "I took great exception to this."

"Why not explain it to him?" She asked with something approaching sweetness, an emotion that very much put her daughter on guard, usually that tone of voice meant something very bad would be about to occur.

"He didn't really give me the opportunity." Piusnex snarked, unable to entirely maintain the level of submission the Queen was used to despite her diplomatic intentions.

To her surprise her mother merely bestowed upon her a tolerant smile, "Go, rest, I will explain the situation to him once he awakens." The Queen assured, effectively dismissing two of the intruders from her inner sanctum.

Relieved, the praetorian left with nothing more than a respectful nod, casually scooping her human into her arms as she moved past him, Alec's struggles even less than half-hearted, more for his dignity than anything else.

Growling darkly the Queen waited for her errant son to wake from his oxygen deprivation induced slumber.

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Author's Note: Apologies for the long delays between updates, over the last few chapters I've taken to writing on paper then typing it up as I find the quality is much better though I'd be interested to see if that's a conclusion you agree with. As always please leave a review, they really make my day.


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